DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 81 



distinguish, the cellular membrane and blood of a European 

 from those of a Creole white." ^ 



You have already, perhaps, been satiated with the account 

 before o^iven of our enemies of the Acarus tribe : there are a 

 few, however, which I could not with propriety introduce 

 there, as they do not take up their abode and breed in us, 

 which nevertheless annoy us considerably. One of these is 

 a hexapod so minute, that, were it not for the uncommon 

 brilliancy of its colour, which is the most vivid crimson that 

 can be conceived, it would be quite invisible. It is known 

 by the name of the harvest-bug {Leptus autumnalis), and is 

 so called, I imagine, from its attacking the legs of the 

 labourers employed in the harvest, in the flesh of which it 

 buries itself at the root of the hairs, producing intolerable 

 itching, attended by inflammation and considerable tumours, 

 and sometimes even occasioning fevers.^ — A similar insect is 

 found in Brazil, abounding in the rainy season, particularly 

 during the gleams of sunshine, or fine days that intervene ; 

 as small as a point, and moving very fast. These animals 

 get upon the linen and cover it in a moment ; afterwards 

 they insinuate themselves into the skin and occasion a most 

 intolerable itching. They are with difficulty extracted, and 

 leave behind them large livid tumours, which subside in a 

 day or two. An insect very tormenting to the wood-cutters 

 and the settlers on the Mosquito shore and the bay of Hon- 

 duras, and called by them the doctor, is thought to be syno- 

 nymous with this.^^ — More serious consequences have been 

 known to follow the bite of another mite related to the above, 

 if not the same species, common in Martinique, and called 

 there the Bete rouge. When our soldiers in camp were at- 

 tacked by this animal, dangerous ulcers succeeded the symp- 

 toms just mentioned, which, in several cases, became so bad, 

 that the limb afl'ected was obliged to be taken olF. * 



I was once collecting insects in Norwood, near London, 



1 Personal Narrative, E. T. v. 101. See Mr. Westwood's description of this 

 insect (which, as before observed, he has separated as a distinct genus under the 

 name of Sarcopsylla penetrans) in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond. ii. 199 j and also 

 Mr. Sells's observations on its economy and habits, ii. 196. 



2 Natural Miscell. ii. t. 42. 



3 Lindley in the Royal Military Chronicle for March 1815, p. 459. 



4 I owe this information to the late Robinson Kittoe, Esq., formerly Clerk of 

 the Cheque in the King's Yard, Woolwich. 



VOL. I. a 



