OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 313 



gnaw from decayed : these particles of wood are kneaded up 

 with a mixture of saliva from their bodies, and moulded into 

 combs. 



When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, and 

 suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms, and umbellated 

 plants : they carry off also flesh from butchers' shambles.* 



CESTRUS CURVICAUDA. This insect lays its nits, or eggs, 

 on horses' legs, flanks, &e. each on a single hair. The maggots, 

 when hatched, do not enter the horses' skins, but fall to the 

 ground. It seems to abound most in moist, moorish places, 

 though sometimes seen in the uplands, f 



NOSE FLY. About the beginning of July, a species of fly 

 (mused) obtains, which proves very tormenting to horses, trying 

 still to enter their nostrils and ears, and actually laying their 

 eggs in the latter of those organs, or perhaps in both. When 

 these abound, horses in woodland districts become very 

 impatient at their work, continually tossing their heads, and 

 rubbing their noses on each other, regardless of the driver j so 

 that accidents often ensue. In the heat of the day, men are 

 often obliged to desist from ploughing. Saddle-horses are 

 also very troublesome at such seasons. Country people call 

 this insect the nose fly. J 



ICHNEUMON FLY. I saw lately a small ichneumon fly 

 attack a spider much larger than itself, on a grass walk. When 

 the spider made any resistance, the ichneumon applied her 

 tail to him, and stung him with great vehemence, so that he 

 soon became dead and motionless. The ichneumon then 

 running backward, drew her prey very nimbly over the walk 

 into the standing grass. This spider would be deposited in 

 some hole, where the ichneumon would lay some eggs ; and as 



* In the year 1775, wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neighbour- 

 hood, that, in the month of August, no less than seven or eight of their 

 nests were ploughed up in one field ; of which there were several instances, 

 as I was informed. 



In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp is sometimes 

 seen, which is of a larger size than usual : this, I imagine, is the queen, 

 or female wasp, the mother of the future swarm. MARKWICK. 



f" The (Entries hominis, or human gadfly, is a native of the West India 

 Islands, and deposits its eggs in the human skin, where they change to 

 the maggot state, and occasion gueat pain ; so many as two hundred and 

 thirty-five have been known to be propagated in the flesh of an individual. 

 Professor Jameson's Journal for April, 1880, records some curious cases 

 of this kind. ED. 



^ Is not this insect the oestrus nasalis of Linnseus, so well described 

 by Mr Clark, in the third volume of the Linncean Transactions, under 

 the name of oestrus veferinns ? MARKWICK. 



