82 



DIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



when my hands were covered by a number of small hungry 

 ticks, which were so greedy after blood, that they penetrated 

 deep into my flesh, giving me no little pain ; and it was not 

 without difficulty that I extracted them. I suspect that this 

 was the dog-tick (^Ixodes Ricinus) which is often found on 

 plants ; but I am not certain, as I neglected to examine it, 

 my attention at that time being almost wholly given to 

 Coleoptera. Lyonnet seems to have been attacked, in one of 

 his entomological excursions, by the same or a similar insect^ 

 which he broke, so firmly had it fixed itself, in endeavouring 

 to extract it ; and he was obliged to lay open the place lest 

 an abscess should be formed.^ But the worst of all the tick 

 tribe is the American (^Ixodes americanus) described by Pro- 

 fessor Kalm. This insect, which is related to the preceding, is 

 found in the woods of North America, and is equally an 

 enemy to man and beast. They are there so infinitely nu- 

 merous, that if you sit down upon the ground, or upon the 

 trunk of a tree, or walk with naked feet or legs, they will 

 cover you, and, plunging their serrated rostrum into the bare 

 places of the body, begin to suck your blood, going deeper 

 and deeper till they are half buried in the flesh. Though at 

 first they occasion no uneasiness, when they have thus made 

 good their settlement, they produce an intolerable itching, 

 followed by acute pain and large tumours. It is now ex- 

 tremely difficult to extract them, the animal rather suflering 

 itself to be pulled to pieces than let go its hold ; so that the 

 rostrum and head being often left in the wound, produce an 

 inflammation and suppuration which render it deep and dan- 

 gerous. These ticks are at first very small, sometimes 

 scarcely visible, but by suction will swell themselves out 

 till they are as big as the end of one's finger, when they 

 often fall to the ground of themselves.^ The serrated haus- 

 tellum of the ticks, which, like the barbed sting of a bee, 

 cannot be extracted unless the animal co-operates, is well 

 worth your inspection ; and the species which infests our dogs 

 is so common that you will have no difficulty in procuring 

 one for examination.^ 



1 Lesser L. ii. 222. note *. 2 De Geer, vii. 154. 160. 



3 The renowned venomous bug of Persia (Mulleh de MianeJi) has been ascer- 

 tained to be a species of Argas by Count Fischer de Waldheim. 



