! 
178 THE MARBLED BUTTERFLY. 
considered as one of the most interesting of British 
lepidopterous insects.* 
" Professor Rennie says, that a species of mite, or bug, 
(Leptus phalangii of De Geer,) infests this insect; and that he 
particularly remarked it in the year 1830, at Havre de Grace. 
So thickly studded were some of the poor animals with these 
troublesome parasites, that they were hardly able to fly, from 
the exhaustion caused by the little bloodsuckers; and so per- 
tinaciously did they maintain their hold, that several of them 
adhered to the Papilios even after they were placed in the Pro- 
fessor’s cabinet. It is a remarkable circumstance, that although 
the Ringlet Butterfly, (Hipparchia hyperanthus,) was very 
abundant at the same time, and their food and habits are 
similar to those of the Ga/athea, not one of the parasites was 
to be found in some hundreds which he caught expressly for 
the purpose of ascertaining the fact. The common Humble 
Bee is infested by a parasitic mite, which often proves the cause 
of its death ; but it has been observed, that, differently from the 
mites above mentioned, they always quit the bee before death, 
or at least the instant it dies. 
tInsect Trans. p. 28. 
