Pediculus. APTERA. 241 



The Pediculi are of various forms or fhapes ; 

 fome of them are almoft oval, others oblong 

 other again very long and (lender ; their head 

 is large, their eyes prominent, and their abdo- 

 men compofed, in fome, of more, in others, 

 fewer fegments, from fix to ten ; their tarfi are 

 compofed of three articulations \ the crotchet, 

 or nail, is femilunular, and very fharp. 



They are oviparous animals, and their eggs 

 are pretty large-, they change their fkin feveral 

 times before they are full grown ; they are 

 thought to be hermaphrodites, which circum- 

 ftance may account in part for their prodigious 

 multiplication. 



Swammerdam, who had differed a great 

 number, and has given a very good hiftory 

 of them, aifures, that he never found one 

 without an ovary, nor ever found the exte- 

 rior parts of generation peculiar to the male 

 fex. If they are all formed thus, the Loufe is 

 an hermaphrodite of a very particular kind, 

 and muft be able to fecundate itfelf without 

 copulation, which no other animal can do. 

 Many kinds of vermes^ or worms^ are herma- 

 phrodites, but far from being able to fecundate 

 'themfeives, they have occafion for a double 



Q_ copulation^ 



