84 



THE AMERICAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



found this cannibal larva pretty commonly 

 among the roots of apple trees infested by the 

 Root-louse, not only near Cobden, but also at 

 Duquoin, S. 111. "Wonderful indeed must be 

 that instinct, which enables the mother-fly to 

 perceive which particular trees in an orchard 

 have their roots swarming with lice, so as to 

 know exactly whei'e to deposit her eggs! 



The best mode to get rid of the Apple-root 

 Plant-louse is to drench the roots of the infested 

 tree with hot water. But to render this process 

 effectual, the water must be ai^plied in quanti- 

 ties large enough to penetrate to every part of 

 the infested roots. There need be no fear of any 

 injurious result from such an application of hot 

 water ; for it is a very general rule tliat veget- 

 able orgausims can, for a short time, stand a 

 much higher temperature than animal organ- 

 isms, without any injury to their tissues. For 

 example, hot water has been from time imme- 

 morial employed to scald the borer in peach- 

 trees ; and there is good evidence that it will 

 kill the onion-maggot without injuring the 

 young growing onions. 



rior middle, and also all the 6 tarsi c.\cei)t theii- extreme tips, 

 and except in the hind legs the basal } of the lirst tarsal 



ANTS' XESTS 1\ GARDENS. 

 A correspondent informs us that by burying 

 a few sliced onions in ants' nests he has caused 

 them to abandon their quarters. We learn from 

 an experienced horticulturist, that two or three 

 tablespoonsfuls of kerosene poured into the holes 

 in their nests will pi'oduce the same effect. 



THE PARASITES OF THE HUMAN ANIMAL. 



"We have had frequent occasion to dwell upon 

 the fact, that one kind of insect is often parasitic 

 upon another, either living within the body of 

 the species which it infests, or attacliiug itself 

 to that body externally. But insects are not the 

 only animals which operate or are operated 

 upon in this manner. Throughout the great 

 group of the backbone animals ( VertehruUt) 

 scarcely a single species can be named, that is 

 not attacked by one or more parasites: and 

 although no known mammal, or bird, or reptile 

 is, strictly speaking, parasitic, we yet find 

 certain genera of lowly-organized fishes, 

 Ojjhidhim and Echeneis, that are so. It is, 

 however, among the ringed animals {ArticiiJata) 

 that the greatest number of parasitic species 

 are found ; while, on the other hand, such species 

 of them as arc not themselves parasitic are very 

 generally infested by others that are so. In the 

 great class of Insects, for example, almost every 

 known species is inhabited by one or more 

 parasites; and even among the parasitic insects 

 many species are themselves inhabited by other 

 parasitic insects, thus presenting the singular 

 spectacle of three living animals, each located 

 inside another one, and only the third and last 

 emerging alive and victorious from the two-fold 

 living envelope, in which nature has appointed 

 it to take up its dwelling. 



Some naturalists have supposed that man 

 forms a group in the Animal Kingdom entirely 

 distinct and isiila'vd fniiii uU the rest. But the 

 more generally rciiMvcl opinion now is, that he 

 is more or less closely allied through the tailless 

 or " anthropoid " apes, such as the gorilla, the 

 chimpanzee, and the ouraug-outang, to the 

 short-tailed baboons and the long-tailed mon- 

 keys. "We propose, in the following paragraphs 

 to show that, so fiir as regards any fancied im- 

 munity from parasitic enemies, the human 

 animal forms no exception to the general rule, 

 but that, on the contrary, an unusually largo 

 number of parasites mark him out for their 

 exclusive prey. Up to a very recent date it was 

 almost universally believed, that the whole 

 animal kingdom was created for the sole benefit 

 and pleasure of man. No doubt each of the 

 various parasitic species that prey upon man 

 thinks — if he ever thinks at all with the gang- 

 lions that serve him instead of a brain — that 

 the human animal was created for his special 

 behoof, and that any attempt to get rid of him 

 on the part of that animal is a grievous viola- 

 tion of the great fundamental laws of nature. 



This subject will perhaps be considered b>- 



