130 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



annoy them and wear them out that they either die or are 

 obliged to be killed.^ 



Some of the most esteemed dainties of our tables are sup- 

 plied from such of the winged part of the creation as we 

 have domesticated. These also have a louse {Nirmus) ap- 

 propriated to them, and the gorgeous peacock is infested by 

 one of extraordinary dimensions and singular form.^ PigeonSj 

 in addition, often swarm with the bed-bug, which makes it 

 advisable never to have their lockers fixed to a dwelling- 

 house. In their young, if your curiosity urges you to 

 examine them, you may find the larva of the flea, which in 

 its perfect state often swarms in poultry. 



Amongst our most valuable domestic animals I shall be 

 very unjust and ungrateful if I do not enumerate those in- 

 dustrious little creatures the heesy from whose incessant 

 labours and heaven-taught art we derive the two precious 

 productions of honey and wax. They also are infested by 

 numerous insect-enemies, some of which attack the bees 

 themselves, while others despoil them of their treasures. — 

 They have parasites of a peculiar genus (if indeed they 

 are not the young larvae of Meloe), although at present 

 regarded as belonging to Pediculus^, and mites {Gamasus 

 gymnopterorum) are frequently injurious to them. In Ger- 

 many the bee-louse (Braula ccsca Nitsch), which is about the 

 size of a flea and allied to the Hippohoscce, often infests 

 populous hives so as greatly to annoy the bees by fixing 

 itself upon them (sometimes two, three, or more on a single 

 bee), and making them restless and indisposed to their usual 

 labours.^ That universal plunderer the wasp, and his formi- 

 dable congener the hornet, often seize and devour them, 



1 Mr. Kittoe. 2 Plate V. Fig. 3. 



3 Melittophagus Mus. Kirby. See Mon. Ap. Angl. ii. 168. (^Trivngulinus 

 Dufour.) I copy the following memorandum respecting M. melittcs from my 

 common-place book, May 7. 1812. On the flowers of Ficaria, Taraxacum, and 

 Bellis, I found a great number of this insect, which seemed extremely restless, 

 running here and there over the flowers, and over each other, with great swiftness, 

 mounting the anthers, and sometimes lifting themselves up above them, as if 

 looking for something. One or two of them leaped upon my hand. Near one of 

 these flowers I found a small Andrena or Halictus, upon which some of these 

 creatures were busy sucking the poor animal, so that it seemed unable to fly 

 away. When disclosed from the egg, I imagine they get on the top of these 

 flowers to attach themselves to any of the AndrenidcB that may alight on them, or 

 come suflSciently near for them to leap on it. — K. 



^ Kollar on Ins, inj. to Gardeners, &c. 73. 



