﻿ANOPLURA LICE 



599 



hind legs remaining, though the others have atrophied. 1 Very 

 little indeed is known as to these Insects. One of the most 

 peculiar points of their economy appears to be that the galls 

 giving vise to males are different from those producing females. 



Anoplura or Lice. 



Small Insects with, thin integument; entirely wingless, the 

 three thoracic segments indistinctly separated; the head 

 bearing in front a short tube furnished with hooks; from which 

 tube there can be protruded another very delicate sucking- 

 tube. Feet terminated by a single long elan-. The Anoplura, 

 Pediculidae, or lice are disgusting Insects about which but little 

 is known. The most contrary opinions have been expressed as 

 to their mode of taking their nourishment, which is, without 

 exception, the blood of Mammals ; on the bodies of which they 

 pass the whole of their life. It is a most 

 difficult matter to examine their mouth ; 

 the best information on this point is given 

 by Schiodte and Graber, but though these 

 two authorities agree, their results are very 

 incomplete, and do not warrant us in ex- 

 pressing a confident opinion as to the nature 

 of the relationship between Hemiptera and 

 Anoplura — a question that has been for 

 long a moot one. The short tube furnished 

 with hooks in front (Fig. 293, d) is con- 

 sidered to be the lower lip, and the tube 

 inside is, it is suggested, a combination of Fig. 292. 

 the homologues of maxillae and mandi- 

 bles ; there is also what may be a labrum 



(//) ; and inside the head a framework, at any rate analogous to 

 if not homologous with, the parts of this kind we have described 

 as existing in Hemiptera, All the parts, with the exception of 

 the basal tube or head of the beak, are of the most minute and 

 delicate nature, so that it is difficult to see their form or com- 

 prehend their relations. It is evident that they are very different 

 anatomically from the mouth-parts of Hemiptera ; still there is 



1 Rubsaamen's paper on these Insects gives references to most of the previous 

 literature, Berlin, ent. Zeitsehr. xxxix. 1894, p. 199. 



Pediculus capi- 

 tis, ?. Human head. 

 (After Piaget. ) 



