198 INDIEECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



casks of ships, in long voyages, so abounds with larvae of this 

 tribe as to render it extremely disgusting. Browne, in his 

 History of Jamaica, mentions an ant {Formica omnivora L.), 

 probably belonging to Myrmica, that consumes or spoils all 

 kinds of food ; which perhaps may be the same species that 

 has been observed in Ceylon by Percival, and is described by 

 him as inhabiting dwelling-houses, and speedily devouring 

 every thing it can meet with. If at table any one drops a 

 piece of bread, or of other food, it instantly appears in motion 

 as if animated, from the vast number of these creatures that 

 fasten upon it in order to carry it off. They can be kept, he 

 tells us, by no contrivance from invading the table, and set- 

 tling in swarms on the bread, sugar, and such things as they 

 like. It is not uncommon to see a cup of tea, upon being 

 poured out, completely covered with these creatures, and 

 floating dead upon it like a scum.' 



In some countries the number of flies and other insects 

 that enter the house in search of food, or allured by the light, 

 is so great as to spoil the comfort of almost every meal. We 

 are told that during the rainy season in India, insects of all 

 descriptions are so incredibly numerous, and so busy every 

 where, that it is often absolutely necessary to remove the 

 lights from the supper table : — were this not done, moths, 

 flies, bugs, beetles, and the like, would be attracted in such 

 numbers as to extinguish them entirely. When the lights 

 are retained on the table, in some places they are put into 

 glass cylinders, which St. Pierre tells us is the custom in 

 the Island of Mauritius^; in others the candlesticks are 

 placed in soup plates, into which the insects are precipitated 

 and drowned. Nothing can exceed the irritation caused by 

 the stinking bugs when they get into the hair or between the 

 linen and the body ; and if they be bruised upon it the skin 



suggests that Blaps tnortisaga is more likely to have eaten the corks than 

 cockroaches, which do not usually frequent cellars, whereas the former are found 

 very generally in those of Bristol ; and, as he has observed the stomach of the 

 individuals of these insects which he dissected to be filled with what seemed 

 saw-dust, they may probably also eat corks, which indeed he found they did on 

 putting them into a box along with the insects. 



1 Ceylon, 307. 2 Voyage, &c. 72. 



