SOME ANNOYING PESTS OF MAN 331 



observers have noted the inclination of the pests to attack 

 more particularly the head in among the hair. Pratt, 

 while among the mountains of Virginia, counted at one 

 time twenty-five individuals among the hair on the head 

 of his boy guide. It is astonishing how persistent the tiny 

 rascals are in their attempts to obtain blood. They will 

 bury their beaks in the flesh and suck the blood until 



FIG. 113. A punkie (C. stellifer), much enlarged. 



their bodies are near to bursting. The effect of the bite 

 varies on different persons. We have always found it to 

 produce a burning, itching sensation very annoying and 

 very uncomfortable. No serious consequences, however, 

 have ever been experienced. Not so with others though, 

 for in some cases pimple-like eruptions occur, looking 

 much like the effect of posion ivy. A correspondent in 

 Texas writes to the U. S. Bureau of Entomology concern- 

 ing a punkie (Fig. 113) (Ceratopogon stellifer) that is 

 abundant in his locality, especially in the vicinity of creeks 



