306 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



if it is shown that its rights are to be exercised for the 

 people's benefit.'' 



When I am gone to that place from whence there is no 

 return ; when this little effort is defeated by the hand of the 

 aggressor ; I trust some future entomologist may engrave on 

 my tombstone : — " He tried to save the People's Forest for 

 the people." I desire no better epitaph. 



Insects infesting the Sheep. — 1. The fag or tick. — The 

 note in the May number has elicited several highly interest- 

 ing communications, showing that there is great anxiety on 

 the part of farmers and others to obtain more correct informa- 

 tion. The fag or sheep-tick, of which I give a figure copied 

 from Walker's 'Insecta Britannica,' vol. ii. pi. xx. fig. 6, is 



the most familiar. It belongs to that strange and aberrant 

 group of Dipterous insects, which are distinguished from all 

 others by their peculiar metamorphosis, which has been thus 

 described : — " The species of this family pass their e^^ and 

 larva state in the body of the mother, and when born are 

 pupaB, or larvae just ready to assume the pupa state, as is 

 proved by their size, which nearly equals that of the parent 

 fly* by their slight motion when first extruded; by spiracu- 

 liform points which run down each side of them ; and by 

 their changing into perfect flies. Each female produces only 

 a single egg or ovipupa." This rather disgusting-looking 

 creature lives entirely in the wool, among the fibres of which 



