554 THE COMMON GNAT. 



for years, and yet, when T became its unfortunate first occupant, being rendered helpless 

 by a broken leg and dislocated ankle, the Fleas came swarming in positive armies to 

 their long-delayed feast, like the locust hosts descending upon a cornfield, and caused 

 unspeakable miseries until they were routed by continual slaughter. What food these 

 insects may have found in an empty room is not easy to say, as, though the larvte might, 

 perhaps, have continued to subsist on the feathers of the pillows, the perfect insects could 

 not eat such juiceless substances, and must either have gone altogether without food, or 

 drawn their subsistence from some unknown source. 



Another species of Flea, the CHIGOE (Pulex penetrans), sometimes corrupted into 

 JIGGER, is a terrible pest in tropical countries, attacking human beings, and by its 

 peculiar habits causing severe injuries, unless they are checked at once. They mostly 

 attack the feet, generally preferring the bare spot just between the toe and the nail. 

 When they have made their way fairly under the skin, they swell to a very great size, the 

 body becoming about the size and shape of a sweet pea, and being filled with a vast 

 number of eggs. Generally, those who live in the Chigoe-infected regions are careful to 

 have their feet examined every day, and the offending insects dislodged with the point of 

 a needle. Sometimes, however, one may escape observation until it has obtained its full 

 development, when its only external sign is a slight swelling, with a bluish colour. To 

 extract one of these swollen insects is a matter of no small difficulty, for if the body be 

 burst, and a single egg suffered to remain, the creature will be hatched in the wound, and 

 the result will be a painful festering sore. If such an event should take place, the best 

 plan is to pour a drop of spirit of turpentine into the wound, a process sufficiently painful, 

 but yet preferable to the risk of the future sores. 



The young negroes are very subject to the Chigoe, and every evening a chorus of 

 outcries is usually heard, being sounds of lamentation from the children, whose toes are 

 undergoing maternal inspection. The little creatures, with the shortsighted cunning of 

 childhood, always try to hide the Chigoe bite, in hopes of escaping the resulting needle. 

 But their cunning only meets its due reward, as when the Chigoe has made her burrow, 

 the sharp eye of the negress is sure to discover it, and then the whole nest has to be 

 excavated, and rendered untenable by red pepper, rubbed well into the hollow. Indeed, 

 if it were not for the terror inspired by the red pepper, the children would hardly have a 

 sound foot among them. 



It may seem curious that the insect should be able to burrow under the skin without 

 being discovered, but the fact is, that it sets about its work so quietly, and insinuates 

 itself so gently, that the only perceptible sensation 'is a slight but not unpleasant 

 irritation. 



DIPTEKA. 



WE now pass to the DIPTEEA, or Two-winged Insects, which may be known not only 

 by the single pair of w'ings, but by the little appendages at their base, called halteres or 

 balancers, and which are the only vestiges of the hinder pair of wings. Moreover, the 

 wings are not capable of being folded. This order is of vast extent, and includes a whole 

 host of species, many being extremely minute, and many others displaying so many 

 uncertainties of form and habit, that the arrangement of this order is one of the greatest 

 difficulties with which systematic entomologists have to contend. On the engraving a 

 few examples are given of this order, for the purpose of illustrating some of the principal 

 families. 



A male specimen of the COMMON GNAT may be seen at the upper left hand of the 

 engraving, and is an example of the family Culicidse. The mouth of this pretty and 

 graceful but very annoying insect, is fully as complicated as that of the flea, and under 

 the microscope is a truly beautiful object. The male Gnat, which is easily known by the 



