96 CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



The family Hippoboseidse includes the louse-flies. Some of these are 

 winged and some wingless. They are parasitic upon birds and mam- 

 mals. The best known member of this family is the sheep-tick, a 

 wingless species, which lives upon sheep. 



The family Nyeteribiidse, or bat-ticks, are, as their name implies, 

 parasitic on bats. They, too, are a wingless species. 



The family Braulidse includes the bee-louse, a minute wingless 

 creature, infesting the honey-bee. 



Order SIPHONAPTERA. 



This is an order erected to take in the fleas. These insects have 

 many peculiarities in common with flies, and at one time were consid- 

 ered as degraded Dipterons. The order contains but a single family, 

 Pulieidse. There are a number of species, however, afflicting various 



animals. The dog and cat 

 have their special fleas, and 

 man another, the latter being 

 the Pulex irritans, a descrip- 

 ^ on f which is not necessary 

 for California readers. 



The Chigoe, a small species, 

 common in warm climates, is 

 sometimes a very serious pest. 

 The female has a habit of 



FIG. 84. Cat and dog flea (Ctenocephal as canis). A, larva burrowing into the flesh, be- 



Tduit r ,2 K Z Ckel d ' Herculais); *' adult " Length of tween the toes of the natives, 



or others, when opportunity 



allows. In this position, with her abdominal end protruding, she swells 

 with eggs to the size of a pea, when the eggs are obtruded and shed on 

 the ground. Unless removed, these pests sometimes cause great 

 suffering. 



Order COLEOPTERA. 



(The Beetles.) 



The Coleoptera, or beetles, are, perhaps, not so familiar to the general 

 observer as the butterflies and moths, although they outnumber them 

 in species two to one, for they are generally obscure in their habits in 

 both larval and adult stages, and when seen are usually avoided on 

 account of their unfriendly, or, in some cases, disagreeable aspect. But 

 they are so numerous, over 12,000 species being known, and so easily col- 

 lected and preserved, that the amateur collector of insects is attracted 

 to them nearly as much as to the Lepidoptera. 



