HARVEST BUG. 103 



look out for these birds in Andalusia ; and now he 

 writes me word that, for the first time, he saw one 

 dead in the market, on the 3d of September. 



When the cedicnemus flies, it stretches out its 

 legs straight behind, like a heron. 



XXXIV. 



THERE is an insect with us, especially on chalky 

 districts, which is very troublesome and teasing 

 all the latter end of the summer, getting into peo- 

 ple's skins, especially those of women and chil- 

 dren, and raising tumours, which itch intolerably. 

 This animal (which we call an harvest bug) is 

 very minute, scarce discernible to the naked eye, 

 of a bright scarlet colour, and of the genus of 

 acarus 1 . They are to be met with in gardens 

 on kidney beans, or any legumens, but prevail 

 only in the hot months of summer. Warreners, 

 as some have assured me, are much infested by 

 them on chalky downs, where these insects swarm 

 sometimes to so infinite a degree as to discolour 

 their nets, and to give them a reddish cast ; 

 while the men are so bitten as to be thrown into 

 fevers. 



There is a small, long, shining fly in these parts, 

 very troublesome to the housewife, by getting 

 into the chimneys, and laying its eggs in the bacon 

 while it is drying. The eggs produce maggots, 

 called jumpers, which, harbouring in the gammons 

 and best parts of the hogs, eat down to the bone, 

 and make great waste. This fly I suspect to be a 



1 Most probably acarus autumnalis. It buries itself at the 

 roots of the hairs on the extremities, producing intolerable 

 itching, attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, 

 and sometimes even occasioning fevers. W. J. 



