All Account of the American Cantlums. 101 



In pursuance of my investigation, I perceived that 

 those with the margined elytra, and the black ones, co- 

 pulated promiscuously, and that there appeared to be 

 males and females of both kinds. 



Some days after this, as Dr. Todd and myself were 

 riding together, I mentioned to him what I had disco- 

 vered, and, soon after, coming up to a potatoe patch, I 

 discovered one of the black kind, and caught it. Dr. 

 Todd rubbed it, for perhaps three seconds, upon his 

 WTist, without mashing it, and called on me" to notice the 

 place. In riding one mile he complained of an itching, 

 mingled with a burning sensation on the spot ; which, 

 on examination, was perceived to be a little red. In 

 about one hour we caught some more, and found them 

 of both the kinds above mentioned, but none v/hich an- 

 swered Dr. C.'s description. Dr. Todd then applied a 

 second, of the black kind, in the same place, and in the 

 same manner ; when he mentioned to me, that the pain 

 was excessively severe, and in a few minutes, on exami- 

 nation, we perceived a vesication had begun. I did not 

 see Dr. Todd, until two or three days after this time ; 

 v/hen he showed me his arm, and there had been a com- 

 plete vesication, as large as the utmost bounds of the ap- 

 plication of the insect, and larger than either of us had 

 supposed he rubbed it on the skin. 



Dr. Todd informed, that he was at Southington a day 

 or two before, and on mentioning the above fact to Dr. 

 Wadsworth, he, with his son and Dr. Todd, went into a 

 plot of potatoes, and found the flies in plenty; — that Mr. 

 Wadsworth applied one to his flesh, (I do not now re- 

 member where,) and that it became red in a few minutes. 

 I have not learned the final result of it. 



If they are other where no more plenty than where I 

 first saw them, I presume that a child of ten years old, 

 furnished with a convenient apparatus for confining them 

 after they were taken, might gather a pound, at least, 

 per day. Those that I saw, flew but little, nor did they 

 make any other attempt to escape being taken, only to 

 fall from one leaf to another ; and, if pursued, they would 

 contract their legs, antennee, &c. and flill, apparently, 

 lifeless to the ground. Some, I saw, running into little 



