4 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



[January 



family which is still more obnoxious ; this is the Chigoe or Jigger, 

 Sarcopsylla penetrans, which burrows deep into the flesh, causing most 

 violent inflammation. 



Linnaeus placed these insects in his order Aptera ; but they are 

 generally considered to be an aberrant family of the Diptera. The 

 female is more than double the size of the male, and usually lays eight 

 to ten eggs. The larvae are long, apod, vermiform maggots, composed 

 of thirteen segments, and, although without legs, are extremely vigor- 

 ous in their movements, twisting about in all directions. They may 

 be found in carpets, blankets, birds' nests, &c., and w^ere discovered 

 by Mr. Boden, in 1881, feeding on the juices of CEcophora pseiido- 

 spretella and Endrosis fenestrella. The larva, wdien full grown, seeks 

 out some crack, or other safe place of refuge, and there, after remain- 

 ing some time in a motionless state, spins itself a cocoon of tlie softest 

 and most slender silk, the interior being of the purest white, but the 

 exterior rougher, and soiled with dust.- Within this cocoon it changes 

 to a pupa, which at first is of a milk white, but gradually changes 

 colour, and finally assumes that of the imago. It is a question how 

 many species there are, and w^hether the same species does not infest 

 more than one species of animal or bird : thus some consider all 

 those attached to birds to constitute but a single species. However, 

 the antennae of different species exhibit considerable differences. 



The following I have found in Dorsetshire : — 



1. Hystrichopsylla talpcg, Curt. Of this large species I found a 

 specimen in a field mouse's nest, at Glanville's Wooton, on Sept. 4th, 

 1889. It was first described and figured by Curtis in his " British 

 Entomology," in 1826, but under the mistaken impression that it was 

 attached to the mole. It has also been figured and described by 

 Ritsener in the " Tijdshrift Ent.," in 1868, under the name of Ohtusiceps. 

 If the name given by Curtis be superseded because the species is not 

 found on the mole, so must various specific names of Lepidoptera be 

 superseded, because the larvae do not feed on the plants after which 

 they are named. In 1873 Mr. Champion exhibited at the Entomolo- 

 gical Society, specimens of a large species of flea, probably of this 

 species, found by Mr. F. Walker in a mouse's nest in the Isle of 

 Sheppey. 



2. Piilex irritans, Linn. Common PYea. Figured by Walker. 

 Bouche separated the various species according to the length of the 

 joints of the tarsi. 



