418 
Scientific In telligence. — Zoology. 
9.9j. Mallah of Miana^ a venomous insect found in Persia . — 
Several recent travels in Persia present a frightful picture of 
the effects of the puncture of a parasitical insect which occurs 
in that country, and more especially at Miana, a small town on 
the route from Tauris to Teheran. According to M. Dupre, 
this town is surrounded by rivers, which render a residence 
there unsupportable in summer, from the quantity of trouble- 
some insects which are generated, and especially the Mallah, a 
sort of tick, which produces death unless the person punctured 
by it carefully avoids animal food, and acid or fermented liquors, 
and makes use of sugar, which is the only effectual remedy. 
It shuns the light, and does not occur in houses newly built. 
M. M. Kotzebue, agrees with Dupre in his account of the fatal 
effects of its puncture, tie says that it avoids the open day, 
keeping itself concealed in the holes of old walls, and that its 
poison assumes more activity during the heats of summer. He 
remarks, that the effects of its puncture upon the natives, are 
trifling compared with those experienced by strangers, and ad- 
duces several instances of death, preceded by delirium and in- 
tolerable pain produced by it. — Morier and other travellers are 
of opinion that this formidable insect is not a bug or tick ; and 
as it was of importance to determine the truth, M. Fischer of 
Waldheim obtained specimens through the Russian Ambassa- 
dor in Persia, M. de Mazarovitch, and Mr Calley, an English 
gentleman resident in the country. He determines it to be a 
tick, or one of those parasitic insects belonging to the family of 
Acaridne, such as occur in all countries upon dogs, oxen, and 
other animals. — M. Larveille was the first entomolooist who dis- 
c-/ 
tinguished the genus ixodes , and that of avgas , two of the most 
noxious to man and the other animals which they infest, and to 
the latter of which the mallah belongs. They are very re- 
markable for the form of their suckers, and for the structure of 
their feet, which enables them to stick close to the skin. The 
genus Argas was formed upon the J earns ref Lexus of Fabricius ; 
the body is very flat, and of an oval form ; the sucker, which 
is situated under the body, is not contained in a sheath formed 
by the palpi. There occurs in Italy, and the south of France, 
especially upon pigeons, an argas, bordered all round with a pale 
yellow colour, with darker shades. This species is figured by 
2 
