CLASS I. INSECTA: ORDER 13. ANOPLURA. 



597 



ORDER 12. MALLOPHAGA. 



This small order — from' the Greek mallos^ wool, and phago^ to eat — is composed of insects 

 bearing a general resemblance to the lice, with which, in fact, they are arranged by many authors. 

 They differ from them in having the mouth always formed for biting, being furnished with a pair 

 of hooked mandibles, and distinct upper and lower lips. Instead of sucking the blood of the 

 animals on which they are parasitic, the Mallophaga devour the most delicate portions of their 

 hair or feathers ; frequently attacking these organs at the moment of their sprouting through the 

 skin. They are especially common upon birds, few of them being free from such parasites ; and 

 some species also infest quadrupeds. As nearly every species of bird has at least one of these 

 peculiar to itself, their numbers arc by no means small, and they liave been formed into numerous 

 genera. 



ORDER 13. ANOPLURA. 



Neither the habits nor the appearance of the insects forming the present order — whose name is 

 derived from the Greek anoplos^ unarmed, and oura, a tail — are such as to render them particu- 

 larly attractive objects. Small as they are, perhaps no other insects inspire so much disgust as 

 Lice, being generally regarded as tjie concomitants of dirty habits. They have a flattened and 

 semi-transparent body, with a distinctly separated head, which bears a pair of short, five-jointed 

 antenna^ and one or two simple eyes on each side, and is furnished beneath with a soft, retractile 

 proboscis, within which are four bristle-like organs. 



These animals are all parasitic upon mammiferous animals, of which almost every species has 

 its peculiar louse, while some of them harbor three or four distinct species. Four species inhabit 

 the human subject, two of which are common, the Head-Louse, Pediculus capitis, and the Body- 

 Louse, P. vestimentorinn ; the P. tabescentium has only been occasionally observed, but always 

 in vast numbers, either causing or accompanying a complaint under which the patient appears 

 gradually to waste away. Several instances are recorded in ancient authors of death being 

 caused by this disease, which is termed phtkiriasis, from the Greek phtheir, a louse. The Roman 

 dictator, Sylla, the two Herods, the Emperor Maximian, and Philip IL of Spain, are said to 

 have died of this loathsome malady. 



These insects generally infest those parts of their hosts which are most thickly covered with 

 hair, among which they creep about with ease by means of their grasping claws. They attach 

 their eggs, which are of a pear shape, and called JVits, to the hairs, and the young are excluded 

 in a few days. They undergo no metamorphosis, and are soon capable of reproduction ; so 

 that their numbers rapidly increase, when proper measures for their eradication are neglected. 



THE puAYiNG-BEETLE. — (See page 589.) 



