54 DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



honest Ligon, who says, in his History of Barbadoes, " I have had ten 

 (Chegoes) taken out of my feet in a morning, by the" most unfortunate 

 Yarico, an Indian woman." 1 Humboldt observes, "that the whites born 

 in the torrid zone walk barefoot with impunity in the same apartment 

 where a European recently landed is exposed to the attack of this animal. 

 The Nigua therefore distinguishes what the most delicate chemical analysis 

 could not distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of a European 

 from those of a creole white." 2 



You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the account before given 

 of our enemies of the Acarus tribe ; there are a few, however, which 

 I could not with propriety introduce there, as they do not take up 

 their abode and breed in us, which nevertheless annoy us considerably. 

 One of these is a hexapod so minute, that, were it not for the uncommon 

 brilliancy of its colour, which is the most vivid crimson that can be con- 

 ceived, it would be quite invisible. It is known by the name of the 

 harvest-bug (Leptus autumnalls\ and is so called, I imagine, from its attack- 

 ing the legs of the labourers employed in the harvest, in the flesh of which 

 it buries itself at the root of the hairs, producing intolerable itching, 

 attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, and sometimes even 

 occasioning fevers. 3 A similar insect is found in Brazil, abounding in the 

 rainy season, particularly during the gleams of sunshine, or fine days that 

 intervene > as small as a point, and moving very fast. These animals get 

 upon the linen and cover it in a moment ; afterwards they insinuate them- 

 selves into the skin and occasion a most intolerable itching. They are with 

 difficulty extracted, and leave behind them large livid tumours, which sub- 

 side in a day or two. An insect very tormenting to the wood-cutters and 

 the settlers on the Mosquito shore and the bay of Honduras, and called by 

 them the doctor, is thought to be synonymous with this. 4 More serious 

 consequences have been known to follow the bite of another mite related 

 to the above, if not the same species, common in Martinique, and called 

 there the Bete rouge. When our soldiers in camp were attacked by this 

 animal, dangerous ulcers succeeded the symptoms just mentioned, which, 

 in several cases, became so bad, that the limb affected was obliged to be 

 taken off. 5 



I was once collecting insects in Norwood, near London, when my hands 

 were covered b} r a number of small hungry ticks, which were so greedy 

 after blood, that they penetrated deep into my flesh, giving me no little 

 pain ; and it was not without difficulty that I extracted them. I suspect 

 that this was the dog-tick (Ixodcs Ricinus) which is often found on plants ; 

 but I am not certain, as I neglected to examine it, my attention at that 

 time being almost wholly given to Coleoptera. Lyonnet seems to have been 

 attacked, in one of his entomological excursions, by the same or a similar 

 insect, which he broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, in endeavouring to 



i P. 65. - 



Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 101. See Mr. Westwood's description of this in- 

 sect (which, as before observed, he has separated as a distinct genus under the name 

 of Sarcopsylla penetrans) in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 199. ; and also Mr. Sell's 

 observations on its economy and habits, ii. 196. 



5 Natural Miscell. ii. t. 42. 



4 Lindley in the Royal Military Chronicle for March 1815, p. 459. 



5 I owe this information to the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq., formerly Clerk of the 

 Cheque in the King's Yard, Woolwich. 



