210 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OP ANIMALS. CHAP. VI. 



most horrid of the deaths we have enumerated, have 

 been inflicted on the titled and the wealthy ; and, if 

 we required further proof, the miserable state and death 

 of two of the proudest and most cruel tyrants of 

 ancient times are awful examples ; the inhuman 

 Pheretima swarmed with Euke ; and Herod Agrippa 

 was " eaten of worms." Whether the insects here 

 termed Eulce and Scoleches, were larvae, maggots, or 

 A cari, affects not the question. These wretched men 

 were tormented and killed by the meanest and most 

 disgusting creatures on the face of the earth. 



(224.) One of the most 

 pestiferous of the West India 

 Acari, or ticks, is the Lepto- 

 scarus nocturnus * of Guild- 

 ing {fig- 64.), of which the 

 annexed cut gives a magnified 

 representation. " In its noc- 

 turnal habits and wanderings 

 it resembles the common Eu- 

 ropean bed bug (jCimex lee- 

 tularius), and is one of the 

 greatest pests among the Acari. 

 They lie hid during the day- 

 time in chinks, where they are 

 betrayed by the livid spots caused by their excrement. 



At nightfall they 

 creep from their 

 retreats, and attack 

 our domestic ani- 

 mals with the great- 

 est obstinacy. Be- 

 fore I discovered 

 the cause, my goats 

 wasted away, and 

 became restless and 

 noisy ; and a powerful horse suffered so much from the 



* " Distinguished from Argas by the very minute trophi totally con. 

 cealed in the breast." Guilding. 



