Insects. 



6170 



to the genus Simulium ; to which genus also belongs an insect of 

 fearful note, which attacks the horned cattle in Servia and the Baunat, 

 penetrating the generative organs, nose, ears &c., of these animals, 

 and by its poisonous bite destroying them in a few hours. A species 

 of the same genus of minute Tipulidae is common in marshy districts 

 in England ; and I have often experienced its attacks, which have 

 resulted in the raising of a tumour on the part of the flesh which has 

 been attacked, attended by a considerable amount of local inflamma- 

 tion ; and hence we may readily believe the well authenticated effects 

 produced upon the cattle above described. There are various other 

 insects which attack the horse and ox, such as the Hippoboscae, 

 various species of ticks, Anthomyise, &c. ; and if these do not, from 

 their smaller size, cause a discharge of blood like the large Tabanidae, 

 it is certain that the irritation which they produce, not only by their 

 presence upon the skin, but also by the sharpness of their bite, must 

 be very irritating to the quadrupeds which they infest. 



" The insects which do not themselves feed upon our cattle, but 

 simply infest them for the purpose of depositing their eggs in some 

 convenient place or other on their bodies, are in no instance that I 

 recollect provided with an increased development of the mouth- 

 organs; on the contrary the (Estridae are either entirely destitute of a 

 mouth, or have only very small rudiments of some of the ordinary 

 parts of the mouth, so as to be entirely unfi.tted for biting and 

 wounding cattle. The eff'ects, however, which some of the species pro- 

 duce are as annoying as those caused by the bites of the Tabani. The 

 female fly of the common horse-bot {(Estrus Equi), it is true, instils no 

 dread into the horse around which she is intently engaged in flying, 

 depositing her eggs here and there in particular spots where the horse 

 is certain to lick the hairs, by which means the eggs are introduced 

 into the mouth and passed into the stomach. So little indeed is the 

 horse affected by the presence of this insect, that I have often stood 

 close to one round which the (Estrus equi has been flying, until the 

 latter has come within the reach of my hand, when I have caught it 

 without trouble. Another species, (E. hoemorrhoidalis, however, is 

 much more troublesome. ^ ^ ^ The same kind of effect is also 

 produced in reindeer by the (Estrus Tarandi,^ and in oxen by 



* Linneus notes, in his * Journal of a Tour in Lapland/ July 19th, *' I remarked 

 with astonishment how greatly the reindeer are incommoded in hot weather, 

 insomuch that they cannot stand still a minute, no not a moment, without changing 

 their posture, starting, puffing and blowing continually, and all on account of a little 



