SPINNING MITES, 113 



CASE They are with difficulty extracted, and leave behind them large 

 livid tumours, Avhich subside in a day or two. An insect very 

 tormenting to the woodcutters and settlers on the Mosquito shore 

 and Bay of Honduras, and called by them the Doctor, is thought 

 to be synonymous with this. They add, on authority which they 

 give, that more serious consequences have been known to follow 

 the bite of another mite related to the above, if not the same 

 species, common in Martinique, and called there the bete rouge. 

 When our soldiers in camp were attacked by this animal, dangerous 

 ulcers succeeded the symptoms just mentioned, which in several 

 instances became so bad that the limb affected was obliged to be 



t taken off. 



Teteanychus Tlalsahuate {Lemaire). 



To this irritating group also probably belongs a small insect that 

 occurs in Mexico, called by the Indians Tlalsahuate. It lives, 

 among the herbage, and is almost imperceptible to the naked 

 eye. It attacks man, and fixes itself upon the eyelids, or arm- 

 pits, &c. Its presence is announced by an itching sensation on the 

 part where it is, which is followed by redness, swelling, and some- 

 times suppuration. These morbid phenomena usually last for six 

 days, and always remain local, which would seem to indicate that 

 the insect does not propagate. All that is required, in order to get 

 rid of the morbid sensations, is to remove the insect. This i& 

 done by the Mexicans by a needle or fine stalk of grass. The 

 insect appears only to occur in the temperate lands of Mexico, 

 being unkno^\^l in the hot regions. An instance is recorded in 

 the " Annales de I'Academie des Sciences," (1867), of its importa- 

 tion into France. " On Saturday last (15 July)," says M. Lemaire, 

 who reports the circumstance, " Madame Biart brought me her 

 daughter, about four years of age, who complained of a smart 

 itching in the eyelid of the left eye. I found there, between the 

 eye-lashes, some redness and swelling. From the information 

 given me, it occurred to me that this might possibly arise from the 



II 



