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diff --git a/old/66726-0.txt b/old/66726-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 32562d5..0000000 --- a/old/66726-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4119 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of More Minor Horrors, by Arthur Everett -Shipley - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: More Minor Horrors - -Author: Arthur Everett Shipley - -Release Date: November 13, 2021 [eBook #66726] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Peter Becker, Les Galloway and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was - produced from images generously made available by The Internet - Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MORE MINOR HORRORS *** - Transcriber’s Notes - -Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations -in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and -punctuation remains unchanged. - -Italics are represented thus _italic_. - - - - - MORE MINOR HORRORS - - - [Illustration: Mosquitos in the Colvith River delta, Arctic Alaska, - about 71° lat., July 1909. The Eskimo, Natkusiak, had stood still for - a minute or two, and refrained from brushing them off, while loading a - uomiak. (From the _American Museum Journal_.) - [_Frontispiece_]] - - - - - MORE - MINOR HORRORS - - BY - - A. E. SHIPLEY, Sc.D. - - HON. Sc.D. PRINCETON, F.R.S. - - MASTER OF CHRIST’S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND READER IN ZOOLOGY - IN THE UNIVERSITY - - ILLUSTRATED - - LONDON - - SMITH, ELDER & CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE - 1916 - - [All rights reserved] - - - - - EDMUNDO ALFREDO CARRINGTON - - ET - - JOHANNI TRISTRAM YARDE - - COLLEGII CHRISTI DILECTISSIMIS ALUMNIS - HUIC AB ORIENTI ILLI AB OCCIDENTI PARTE - PRO PATRIA PUGNANTIBUS - - - - - PREFACE - - -My publisher tells me that this volume will be regarded as a sequel -to ‘The Minor Horrors of War,’ and he assures me that sequels are -not a success. I have no doubt my publisher is right, because if -publishers were not invariably right, and authors invariably wrong, how -can one explain the fact that publishers are proverbially prosperous -and prominent people, whereas authors are notoriously penniless and -obscure? In spite of his warning, however, I propose to publish this -little volume, for there still ‘air some catawampous chawers in the -small way, too, as graze upon a human pretty strong’—as ‘one of them -inwading conquerors at Pawkins’s’ called them—that were unmentioned in -my earlier book. - -I am indebted to the kindness of the Editor and Proprietors of the -_British Medical Journal_ for permission to reprint Chapters I to IX -and Chapter XI, and to the Editor of _The Journal of Economic Biology_ -for permission to reprint the twelfth chapter, of this book, and I -offer them my thanks. I also thank Mr. Hugh Scott (the University -Curator in Entomology), and Professor G. H. Carpenter of the Royal -College of Science, Dublin, for much kindly help. - - A. E. SHIPLEY. - - CHRIST’S COLLEGE LODGE, CAMBRIDGE, - _April 1916._ - - - - - CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - I. COCKROACHES (_Periplaneta_) 1 - - II. COCKROACHES (_continued_) 16 - - III. THE BOT- OR WARBLE-FLY (_Hypoderma_) 25 - - IV. THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) 42 - - V. THE MOSQUITO (_continued_) 53 - - VI. THE MOSQUITO (_continued_) 65 - - VII. THE MOSQUITO (_continued_) 76 - - VIII. THE MOSQUITO (_continued_) 86 - - IX. THE YELLOW-FEVER MOSQUITO (_Stegomyia - calopus_) 101 - - X. THE BISCUIT-‘WEEVIL’ (_Anobium paniceum_) 111 - - XI. THE FIG-MOTH (_Ephestia cautella_) 114 - - XII. THE STABLE-FLY (_Stomoxys_) 124 - - XIII. RATS (_Mus_ or _Epimys_) 135 - - XIV. THE FIELD-MOUSE (_Apodemus sylvaticus_) 153 - - INDEX 161 - - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS - - - FIG. PAGE - - A portrait of the head of an Eskimo attacked by - mosquitos _Frontispiece_ - - 1. _Periplaneta orientalis_, male, dorsal view 2 - - 2. _P. orientalis_, male, side view 6 - - 3. Mouth parts of _P. orientalis_ 9 - - 4. _P. orientalis_, female, dissected 10 - - 5. Egg capsule of _P. orientalis_ 12 - - 6. Cast skin of the nymph stage of cockroach 18 - - 7. Nymph stage of cockroach escaping from old skin 19 - - 8. _Hypoderma bovis_ 29 - - 9. Eggs of _H. lineatum_ 33 - - 10. Eggs of _H. bovis_ 35 - - 11. Entrance hole of _H. lineatum_ 37 - - 12. Cow being chased by warble-fly 40 - - 13. Side-view of head of _Anopheles maculipennis_, female 44 - - 14. Section through proboscis of _A. maculipennis_, female 45 - - 15. Piercing-lancets of _A. maculipennis_, female 46 - - 16. _A. maculipennis_, female, sucking blood 58 - - 17. _A. maculipennis_, male 66 - - 18. Stridulating organ of _A. maculipennis_ 70 - - 19. Larva and eggs of _A. maculipennis_ 78 - - 20. Side view of the head of larva of _A. maculipennis_ 81 - - 21. Under surface of head of larva of _A. maculipennis_ 82 - - 22. Diagrams of mosquitos and gnats 85 - - 23. Side view of pupa of _A. maculipennis_ 91 - - 24. Tail of pupa of _A. maculipennis_ 93 - - 25. Imago mosquito issuing from pupa-case 95 - - 26. _Stegomyia fasciata_, female 104 - - 27. Larva and eggs of _S. fasciata_ 106 - - 28. Larva of _S. fasciata_ 107 - - 29. Egg of _S. fasciata_ 108 - - 30. The biscuit-‘weevil’ (_Anobium paniceum_) 112 - - 31. The larval and pupal stages of _A. paniceum_ 113 - - 32. Orchard of fig-trees 115 - - 33. The fig-moth (_Ephestia cautella_) 116 - - 34. Figs drying on reeds 119 - - 35. Figs packed on strings 120 - - 36. Pile of refuse-figs 122 - - 37. The stable-fly (_Stomoxys calcitrans_) 125 - - 38. _Stomoxys calcitrans_ 126 - - 39. Wings of _Musca domestica_ and of _Stomoxys calcitrans_ 127 - - 40. Side view of head of _Stomoxys calcitrans_ 128 - - 41. _Stomoxys calcitrans_. Eggs 129 - - 42. Acephalous larva of _Stomoxys calcitrans_ 130 - - 43. Coarctate pupa of _Stomoxys calcitrans_ 131 - - 44. The rat (_Mus rattus_) 136 - - 45. Head of _Mus rattus_ 138 - - 46. _Mus decumanus_ 143 - - 47. Head of _Mus decumanus_ 145 - - 48. The field-mouse (_Apodemus sylvaticus_) 156 - - 49. Diagram of burrow of field-mouse 159 - - - - - MORE MINOR HORRORS - - - - - CHAPTER I - - COCKROACHES (_Periplaneta_) - - - PART I - - _The Governess:_ And, perhaps, Mabel, as they are not black - and as they are not beetles, you will in future call them cockroaches. - _Mabel:_ Certainly, Miss Smith, although they are not cocks - and they are not roaches. (_Punch._) - - -In ‘The Minor Horrors of War,’ we rather neglected the Navy—the -senior Service, and till now the more dominant of our two magnificent -forces—partly because it is less interfered with by insect pests than -is the sister Service, though the common pests of our poor humanity—the -flea, the louse, the bug—are, like the poor, ‘always with us.’ Like -aeroplanes, insects have captured the air; like motors, they have made -a respectable show on land; but they have signally failed at sea. They -have nothing corresponding to battleships or submarines; and a certain -bug, called _Halobates_, alone hoists the insect flag on the ocean, and -that only in the warmer waters. - - [Illustration: FIG. 1.—_Periplaneta orientalis_, male. × 2. Dorsal - view. 1, Antenna; 2, palp of first maxilla; 3, prothorax; 4, anterior - wings; 5, femur of second leg; 6, tibia; 7, tarsus; 8, cerci anales; - 9, styles. (From Kükenthal.)] - -Insects are not only highly intelligent animals, but are by far the -most numerous and dominant class of the Animal Kingdom; and they have -probably come to conclusions about themselves and the sea, comparable -to those expressed by Dr. Johnson about man and the ocean: ‘To all the -inland inhabitants of every region the sea is only known as an immense -diffusion of waters, over which men pass from one country to another, -and in which life is frequently lost.’ - -But one insect at least causes more trouble to sailors than to -soldiers—and that is the cockroach. Like the bed-bug, the cockroach -came into England at the end of the sixteenth century, and, like the -bed-bug, it came from the East. It seems to have been first introduced -into England and Holland in the spacious times of Henry VIII by the -cross-sea traffic, and from about the end of the sixteenth century the -cockroach began gradually to spread throughout the Western world. Like -the rat, the bed-bug, and the domestic fly, it has become thoroughly -acclimatised to human habitations, and is indeed an associate of man. -It is very rarely found living apart from some form or other of human -activity. - -This insect seems to have been first described in England in -Moufet’s ‘Insectorum Theatrum,’ 1634, and he speaks of it as living -in flour-mills, wine-cellars, &c., in England, and he tells us how -Sir Francis Drake took, in 1584, the _San Felipe_, a Spanish East -Indiaman, laden with spices and burdened with a great multitude of -flying cockroaches on board. - -This species was _Periplaneta orientalis_; but there is another and a -larger species, which presumably came into England from the West later -than its Eastern cousin _P. americana_—which can frequently be seen in -England running about in the cages in our zoological gardens—but it is -not on exhibition, it is a by-product, and is not counted in the fee -for admission to the gardens. - -Latter tells us there are ten species of BLATTODEA which occur in -Britain; but only three of these are indigenous, and these three all -belong to the genus _Ectobia_. _Ectobias_ are smaller than cockroaches, -and do not frequent human habitations, but live in shrubs, under -rubbish heaps, &c. Some species of _Ectobia_ are, however, very -destructive and have been known to destroy in one day the whole -accumulation of dried but not properly salted fish in a Lapland -village. Of the remaining species of cockroach most are local, and -occur sporadically in particular factories, or places where food is -stored but they are not very widely spread. - -As we have said above, _P. orientalis_ is the common English cockroach, -_P. americana_ occurs especially in zoological gardens and menageries; -but a third species, _P. germanica_, sometimes gets established. -Mercifully, _P. germanica_ does not seem to spread. Neither _P. -germanica_ nor _P. americana_ seem to make much headway against _P. -orientalis_, which appears to be predominant over both these other -species. - -_P. germanica_ is probably most methodical, very thorough, very -brave, very faithful—but rather lacking in the power of understanding -the point of view of others. If it has any association with its -specific name, it illustrates the most striking example in the world’s -history of the divorce of wisdom from learning. ‘O Lord! give us -understanding,’ should be the prayer of _P. germanica_. - -Miall and Denny tell us that from the first introduction of _P. -orientalis_ into England it took two centuries before it spread far -beyond London. In 1790 Gilbert White speaks of it as ‘an unusual -insect, which he had never observed in his house till lately,’ -and, indeed, at the present moment many English villages are still -blissfully ignorant of this particular nuisance. - -As Fig. 2 shows, the cockroach is a somewhat slackly put -together insect. One might almost call it rather slatternly and -loose-jointed—and the latter it certainly is. Its head moves freely on -the thorax, and the thorax on the abdomen. The successive segments -of the latter move very freely on one another. The legs are long and -mobile, and so are the antennae with which the animal is ceaselessly -testing the ground over which it flits hither and thither in its -restless activity. - - [Illustration: FIG. 2.—_Periplaneta orientalis_, male. × 2. Side - view. 1, Antenna; 2, head; 3, prothorax; 4, anterior wing; 5, soft - skin between terga and sterna; 6, sixth abdominal tergum; 7, split - portion of tenth abdominal tergum; 8, cercianales; 9, styles; 10, coxa - of third leg; 11, trochanter; 12, femur; 13, tibia; 14, tarsus; 15, - claws. (From Kükenthal.)] - -Cockroaches are very difficult to catch. They practically never walk, -but run with a hardly believable rapidity, darting to and fro in an -apparently erratic mode of progression. Even when caught they are -not easily retained, for they have all the slipperiness of a highly -polished billiard-ball. They have great powers of flattening their -bodies, and they slip out of one’s hand with an amazing dexterity. -Besides their slipperiness they have another weapon, and that is a -wholly unpleasant and most intolerable odour, which is due to the -secretion of a couple of glands situated on the back of the abdomen. -The glands which produce this repellent odour are sunk in the soft -membrane which unites the fifth and sixth abdominal segments, and -the moment a cockroach is attacked it exudes a sticky, glue-like -fluid, which gives out this most unendurable smell. The fluid is -extraordinarily tenacious and difficult to remove from the hand of -those who have touched the insects. No doubt the cockroach, in nature, -finds safety in this from the attacks of insectivorous animals. - -Cockroaches, as has been said, very rarely walk, they nearly always -run, and they advance the first and third leg of one side at the same -time as the middle leg of the other, pulling themselves forward with -their front legs and pushing themselves forward with the hindermost. -They are thus constantly poised on a tripod. They occasionally, but not -very often, use their wings for flight. When they do so, their anterior -wings are stretched out at right angles to the body, and take no active -share in beating the air. They act in effect as monoplanes. It is the -hinder wings which really do the active flying. After a flight, the -hinder wings are shut up something in the manner of a fan. - -The flattened coxae, or thighs, of the leg are adapted for shovelling -débris back from beneath the body when the insect is enlarging its -habitation. When the cockroach gets into a dusty ‘_milieu_’ the dust -is immediately removed; the hairs on the legs act as clothes-brushes -and brush every part of the body, whilst the antennae, which attract -any dust in the neighbourhood, are repeatedly drawn through the closed -mandibles and so cleaned. A cockroach is able to walk on smooth -surfaces because it possesses between the joints of the tarsus certain -soft, white patches, very velvety, and these give the creature a good -hold, and prevent slipping even on glass. - -Cockroaches will eat pretty well everything. They are a great nuisance -on board ship, where they are said to gnaw the skin and nibble the -toe-nails of sailors. Hardly any animal or vegetable substance -is absent from their menu. It is said that they will even devour -bed-bugs, and that natives on the African shores, troubled by these -semi-parasites, will beg cockroaches as a favour from sailors in -passing ships. - - [Illustration: FIG. 3. Mouth appendages of _Periplaneta_ (magnified). - A, Mandible. B, First maxilla: 1, cardo; 2, stipes; 3, lacinia; 4, - galea; 5, palp. C, Right and left second maxillae fused to form the - labium: 1, submentum; 2, mentum; 3, ligula, corresponding to the - lacinia; 4, paraglossa, corresponding to the galea; 5, palp. (From - Latter.)] - -The mandible (Fig. 3), with its strongly toothed surface, is capable -of biting and grinding into fragments a very varied diet. The food is -moistened by the secretion of the salivary glands, which is capable of -converting starch into the more soluble sugar. The food is further -ground up by a series of hard ridges projecting into the inner face of -the gizzard (Fig. 4, 7). The secretion of the so-called hepatic caeca -is capable of emulsifying fat and rendering proteins soluble. Thus the -ordinary food substances are reduced to a condition in which they are -capable of diffusing from the lumen of the alimentary canal into the -blood which floods the body cavity. - - [Illustration: FIG. 4.—A female cockroach, _Periplaneta_, with the - dorsal exoskeleton removed, dissected to show the viscera. Magnified - about 2. 1, Head; 2, labrum; 3, antenna, cut short; 4, eye; 5, crop; - 6, nervous system of crop; 7, gizzard; 8, hepatic caeca; 9, mid-gut - or mesenteron; 10, Malpighian tubules; 11, colon; 12, rectum; 13, - salivary glands; 14, salivary receptacle; 15, brain; 16, ventral - nerve cord with ganglia; 17, ovary; 18, spermatheca; 19, oviduct; - 20, genital pouch, in which the egg-cocoon is found; 21, colleterial - glands; 22, anal cercus. (From Latter.)] - -The external movement—one might almost say ‘the panting’—which is very -obvious in the abdomen, the alternate flattening and deepening of -this part of the body, is a movement of inspiration and expiration, -the air being driven into the stigmata and so into the tracheae or -breathing-tubes. There is a considerable variation in the rate of these -pulsations, but the cockroach’s heart beats at an average rate of -seventy to eighty contractions per minute. - -Although cockroaches have fairly developed eyes, they seem to trust -very largely to tactile impressions in appreciating their relations -to the surrounding world. Their antennae and the palps of their first -and second maxillae are constantly touching the surface on which they -are resting or moving, and from time to time their antennae wildly -wave in the air in a manner which suggests that they are smelling out -the external circumstances which environ them. The 39,000 sensory -‘nerve-endings’ which are found in the antennae of the male cockroach -are almost certainly olfactory in function. At the posterior end of -the body the two ‘cerci’ are also sensitive to tactile impressions, and -probably act at the hinder end of the cockroach as the antennae act at -the forward end. Cockroaches are certainly keenly sensitive to light, -and, as every one knows, they shun the light, and when detected in -daylight or candle-light they make as quickly as they can for some dark -hole or crevice in which to hide. - - [Illustration: FIG. 5.—Egg capsule of _P. orientalis_ (magnified). A, - External view; B, opened; C, end view. (From Miall and Denny.)] - -Cockroaches breed during the summer, and their eggs are laid in packets -of sixteen in a capsule or cocoon with rounded ends, and with an upper -corrugated edge. These cocoons are very like the little hand-bags -ladies have carried since the dressmakers denied them pockets. There -are sixteen ovarian tubes in the female, and each of these deposits -one egg in each cocoon. The ventral portion of the seventh abdominal -segment in the female is shaped like the prow of a boat, and it is in -this structure that the cocoon, or egg-case, is built up. Each egg is -fertilised by a spermatozoon which has been deposited by the male in -the spermatheca of the female. The eggs are placed in a double row, -eight in each row, facing each other, and, as they gradually develop, -it becomes apparent that the ventral face of one row faces the ventral -face of the other row—just as the little choir-boys on the Gospel side -of a chancel face the little choir-boys on the Epistle side, but much -nearer together—and that their heads are all directed towards the -corrugated ridge. - -They are at first quite white, but with large black eyes, and it -has often struck me how surprised they must be when they awake -to consciousness and find themselves staring at a brother or -sister cockroach just opposite, of whom they have had hitherto no -consciousness. The ripe embryos secrete some fluid, probably saliva, -which dissolves the ridge, and it is through this dissolved or softened -ridge that they ultimately make their way into the outer world. - -Young cockroaches are very active, running about and seeking everywhere -for any food of a starchy nature. They are, in fact, miniatures of -their parents, for a cockroach, like many of the primitive insects, has -a direct development, and there are no such stages as caterpillar and -pupa in their life-history. - -But, like other insects, cockroaches change their skin from time to -time, and they lose little time before beginning this ecdysis, for -they first cast their cuticle immediately after escaping from the -egg-capsule. The second ecdysis is four weeks later, and the third at -the end of the first year, and after this time they moult annually. At -the seventh moult, when the animal is now four years old, it assumes -the form of the perfect insect, and is capable of reproduction. The -later moults fall in the summer time, and so does fertilisation and -oviposition. Male cockroaches may be distinguished from the females by -their well-developed wings and wing-covers. They stand higher on their -legs than do the females, whose abdomens often trail upon the ground. - -In spite of the noxious secretion of their abdominal glands there are -creatures who habitually feed on cockroaches—hedgehogs, for instance, -are frequently imported into our houses to check these pests. Rats, -cats, polecats, frogs, and wasps have been known to eat them, and some -few of the digging-wasps lay them down in their larders for the use -of their progeny. Some birds will also tackle them. But even the most -devoted friend of cockroaches can find little to say in their favour, -except that they are currently reported to form the basis of the -flavouring of a very popular sauce; but even wild cockroaches will not -drag from me what the name of that particular sauce is. - - - - - CHAPTER II - - COCKROACHES (_Periplaneta_) - - PART II - - In Russia the small Asiatic cockroach (_P. orientalis_) has everywhere - driven before it its greater congener (_P. germanica_). - (DARWIN, _Origin of Species_.) - - -Cockroaches do a very considerable amount of damage by consuming -food-supplies. But they do not stop at food-supplies: woollen clothing, -newspapers—not a really great loss—blacking, ink, leather, and even -emery-paper, are all to their taste, and, being of an economical frame -of mind, they devour their own cast skins and the dead bodies of their -relatives. The late Professor Moseley recorded how on one occasion, -when on the circumnavigating tour of H.M.S. _Challenger_, a number of -cockroaches took up their abode in his cabin and devoured parts of his -boots, ‘nibbling off all the margins of leather projecting beyond the -seams on the upper leathers.’ He further records:— - - One huge winged cockroach baffled me in my attempts to get rid of - him for a long time. I could not discover his retreat. At night he - came out and rested on my book-shelf at the foot of my bed, swaying - his antennae to and fro, and watching me closely. If I reached out - my hand from bed to get a stick, or raised my book to throw it at - him, he dropped at once on the deck, and was forthwith out of harm’s - way. He bothered me much, because, when my light was out, he had a - familiar habit of coming to sip the moisture from my face and lips, - which was decidedly unpleasant, and awoke me often from a doze. I - believe it was with this object that he watched me before I went to - sleep. I often had a shot at him with a book or other missile as he - sat on the book-shelf, but he always dodged and escaped. His quickness - and agility astonished me. At last I triumphed by adopting the advice - of Captain Maclear and shooting him with a pellet of paper from my - air-gun, a mode of attack for which he was evidently unprepared. - -It is on record that cargoes of cheeses have been destroyed by -cockroaches on ships. Not only did they devour great quantities of each -cheese, but they defiled every one of them with their very tenacious -fluid which has, as we have noted above, a most disgusting smell. This -the cockroaches poured out from their stink-glands, making the cheeses -of no commercial value. - -When a cockroach casts its skin a median longitudinal slit appears -on the back of the thorax, and through this slit the insect slowly -emerges. With much labour and difficulty it squeezes its body through -and pulls one limb after another from its old integument, until at last -even the long whip-like antennae are completely withdrawn. Certain -portions of its inner anatomy—such as the lining of parts of the -breathing-tubes, or tracheae—are also withdrawn. Should the discarded -skin not be eaten by the emergent insect, it remains on the floor, and -might easily be mistaken for a sedentary cockroach but for the fact -that live cockroaches never are sedentary. - - [Illustration: FIG. 6.—Cast skin of older nymph (pupa). × 2½. (From - Miall and Denny.)] - - [Illustration: FIG. 7.—Nymph (in last larval stage) escaping from old - skin. Magnified. (From Miall and Denny.)] - -The incomplete metamorphosis, the generalised character of the nervures -of the hind wings, the complete separation of the three thoracic -segments (or rather their want of that fusion so conspicuous in the -higher insects—the flies and the bees) and the undifferentiated -condition of the mouth parts—all point to the insect being of a -primitive type. But there is no doubt that, whether a primitive -insect or not, the cockroach is a very successful one; it is an -_arriviste_—as ‘our lively friend, the Gaul,’ to quote Mr. Micawber, -would say—probably owing to its attaching itself in all cases, and -with unvaried devotion to the habitation of men. Not popular with -humanity, it nevertheless ceaselessly extends its domain by slowly yet -surely entering into new and hitherto unconquered human habitations. -In spite of insect-traps and vermin-killers, it is extremely difficult -to eradicate from a house when once it is well established. It has, in -fact, gradually dislodged in most places in Great Britain and Ireland -the old domestic house-cricket. For in spite of its irritating, and to -some people quite maddening, ticking, the ‘cricket-on-the-hearth’ has -somehow established itself as a household pet, and one that has won not -only our respect but our affection. So curious is our psychology. - - The cockroach has many enemies, and the genus _Sphex_ (or _Chlorion_) - may be seen hunting about here and there, up and down the road-side - and gardens, searching for its favourite prey. It spies out a - cockroach, which appears to know intuitively that there is danger at - hand, for it shows symptoms of great fright, and seems so confused - that it cannot run away. The _Chlorion_ pounces upon the insect, - clasps it with its mandibles between the head and the corselet, and - stabs it in the body with the sting. Then it flies off for a little - distance, and awaits the effects of the poison thus introduced; and - when the convulsions of the victim have ceased, the clever little - insect seizes its stupefied prey, and drags the heavy burden with - great efforts to its nest. Usually the opening of the cavity is so - narrow that the cockroach cannot be got in, for its legs and wings - stick out and prevent its introduction. But the _Chlorion_ sets to - work and cuts off the legs and the wings, and having thus lessened - the difficulty, it strives hard to push the body into the hole; but - as this plan usually fails, the hymenopteron enters first of all, - seizes the cockroach with its mandibles, and drags it in with all its - force. As the integuments of the _Blatta_ are more or less soft and - flexible, the great insect is at last forced into the gallery, where - it never could have been expected to have entered. Such proceedings on - the part of the _Chlorion_ almost verge upon the domain of reason; and - it is difficult to explain them by the notion of that very indefinite - quality called instinct, for the manœuvres vary according to the - circumstances, and there appears to be an intelligent method of - overcoming every difficulty.[1] - -Apart from animals which eat it, there are a number of parasites -which infest it, beginning with the parasitic beetle _Symbius -blattarum_, whose wingless females attach themselves to the bodies -of the cockroaches and feed upon their tissues. Then occasionally a -round-worm, _Filaria rhytipleurites_, whose sexual stage is passed -in the rat, is found in its larval stage in the fat bodies of the -cockroach. - -Two years ago Dr. C. Conyers Morrell undertook some investigations -and observations as to what part, if any, cockroaches played in the -dissemination of pathogenic microbes, his object being, as he says, -‘first to ascertain what bacilli belonging to the colon group are -likely to be conveyed to food and milk by this insect, and secondly -to find whether known bacteria and moulds can be transmitted by the -faeces.’ Dr. Conyers Morrell’s experiments were conducted on one of the -Union Castle liners sailing to South Africa, and the insects which were -investigated were collected only from the larder or passages adjacent -to the kitchens; in no case were they taken from lavatories or from -staterooms. The general condition of the ship, which was almost new, -was one of exceptional cleanliness, and thus afforded good conditions -for the experiments. Dr. Morrell was of opinion that there was little -danger except by contamination from the faeces of the infected insect. - -[1] _The Transformation of Insects_, by P. M. Duncan. London: Cassell, -Petter, Galpin and Co., 1882. - -One of his first experiments was to prove that should cockroaches -fall into the dough which was being baked for bread the heat of the -baking entirely destroyed the bacilli that were in the alimentary canal -of the insect. With regard to infection with the colon bacillus, he -kept an infected insect under the best antiseptic conditions he could -compass until it had passed some undigested food. Of this undigested -food an emulsion was prepared, and cultures were made from it on -bile-salt medium and in litmus-milk. Afterwards special cultures were -made in gelatine and peptone solutions. Incubation was conducted in -all cases at 37° C., and cultures were made from seventeen specimens. -Five of these produced colonies of bacilli on the bile-salt medium, -with sub-culture results as follows: Four produced acidity and -clotting of milk, acid, and gas in glucose, lactose, and saccharose, -and production of indol. But the bacilli did not liquefy gelatine, -and were Gram-negative. One specimen produced gas in glucose and -lactose, and liquefied gelatine and coagulated milk. The former in its -reaction corresponded to the _Bacillus lactis aërogenes_, the latter to -_Bacillus cloacae_. In five cases greenish moulds of the _Aspergillus_ -variety were found after inoculating litmus-milk. - -Cockroaches will devour human sputum with avidity, and are frequently -to be found in spittoons (or, as the more delicately minded American -calls them, ‘cuspidors’[2]), and it is interesting to know that after -feeding the insects on infected sputum from a tuberculous patient, the -tubercle bacilli are found in the faeces within twenty-four hours; two -specimens which had been fed on staphylococci showed these pathogenic -organisms in their faeces and in the cultures on agar-agar, which were -obtained from their dejecta. - -I have quoted largely from this important paper, and now propose -to quote a good deal more, and thus I append Dr. Conyers Morrell’s -conclusion of the important experiments he conducted on the Union -Castle liner. - -[2] From the Portuguese ‘cuspidor.’ Cf. the Latin ‘conspuere.’ - -The foregoing experiments, though insufficient in number to afford a -basis for working out percentage results, are, I think, of some value, -in that they prove the following facts:— - -The common cockroach is able by contamination with its faeces (1) to -bring about the souring of milk; (2) to infect food and milk with -intestinal bacilli; (3) to transmit the tubercle bacillus; (4) to -disseminate pathogenic staphylococci; (5) to transmit from place to -place destructive moulds. - -These facts, taken in conjunction with the life-habits of the insect, -lead to the conclusion that the cockroach is able to and may possibly -play a small part in the dissemination of tuberculosis, and in -the transmission of pyogenic organisms; that the insect is in all -probability an active agent in the souring of milk kept in kitchens -and larders; and that it is undoubtedly a very important factor in -the distribution of moulds to food and to numerous other articles, -especially when they are kept in dark cupboards and cellars where -cockroaches abound. The distribution and numbers of the cockroach are -rapidly increasing, and unless preventive measures are adopted the -insect is likely in the course of time to become a very troublesome and -possibly a very dangerous domestic pest.[3] - -[3] _British Medical Journal_, 1911, ii. 1531. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - THE BOT- OR WARBLE-FLY (_Hypoderma_) - - Apropos de bottes.—(REYNARD.) - - -Britain wants many materials in this war, and as long as our back -door is open we are getting them. Petrol, rubber, zinc, copper, -molybdenum, vanadium, thorium, nickel, saltpetre, wool, cotton, -are all coming to us in greater—immeasurably greater—quantities -than those in which they can filter through neutral countries into -Germany. These things count. The shortage of leeches in Great Britain, -on which I have already dwelt, is negligible, and is entirely -over-balanced by the really serious shortage of sausage-skins in -middle Europe. I am told that our meat-salesmen at Smithfield -were offered an incredible advance on the normal rate for these -products—so-very-necessary-and-under-no-circumstances-to-be-done --without-with-casements—but the meat-salesmen at Smithfield were -patriots. In their dire extremity the Germans have been trying to make -them of cellulose. - -Amongst the things both combatants most want is leather. One of the -most impressive efforts we non-combatants have been watching, since -August 1914, is an army growing, near us and next us, with apparently -an unlimited supply of leather belts, leather trappings, leather -saddlery—leather harness for man and beast. Yet they tell me that -the price of leather since the War began has appreciated by 140 per -cent. This may be so; but, as Joseph Finsbury remarked in ‘The Wrong -Box,’ ‘there is nothing in the whole field of commerce more surprising -than the fluctuations of the leather market. Its sensitiveness may -be described as morbid.’ But Joseph was no business-man, and kept in -the background of the office a capable Scot who was understood to -have a certain talent for book-keeping. Readers of Stevenson will -remember that nobody had ever made money out of Finsbury Brothers, -Leather-merchants, except the capable Scot who retired (after his -discharge) to the neighbourhood of Banff, and built a castle with his -profits. There are still many capable Scots about, and this may, to -some extent, account for the present price of Sam Browne belts. - -There must have been well over 150,000 Sam Browne belts made since the -War began. A widespread belief—at any rate, amongst the junior members -of the Army—is that Sam Browne was an American; possibly some slight -confusion existed in their dear young minds between the inventor of the -belt and John Brown whose ‘body lies,’ &c. The inventor of this useful -cincture was, however, Sir Samuel James Browne (1824-1901), G.C.B., -K.C.S.I., the well-known Indian fighter, who lost an arm, and gained a -V.C. by his gallantry during the Mutiny. He was for a time the military -member of the Governor-General’s Council, and he commanded the first -division of the Peshawar Field Force during the Afghan War of 1878-9. -The 22nd Regiment in the Indian Army, a frontier force, is known as Sam -Browne’s Cavalry. - -The belt was first used unofficially, but it gradually found favour -with the authorities, and it is mentioned officially in the regulations -drawn up for the Straits Settlements in 1891, and for Egypt and West -Africa in 1894. It was only on April 24, 1900, that the pattern was -‘sealed,’ and adopted as a general item of equipment for all officers -on Active Service. - -Anything that seriously destroys the continuity of the integument of -our oxen, which interferes with the ‘wholeness’ of the hide which is -the basis of leather, clearly affects—and affects detrimentally—an -important munition of war. The bot- or warble-fly does this. But -it does more: its attacks materially lessen the value of the beef -which potentially lies beneath the hide, and thus in a double sense -the warble-fly is the enemy of man whether he be soldier or sailor. -Further, its attacks seriously lessen the milk-supply of the country. - -Amongst the numerous families into which the true flies (DIPTERA) are -divided, none are more harmful to human enterprise than that of the -_OESTRIDAE_, or bot-flies, inasmuch as every single species and every -single member of this family passes its larval stage within the tissues -of some vertebrate host, and frequently in those of domesticated -cattle; sometimes even in man himself. One of the commonest genera -of this family of flies is _Hypoderma_, which is represented in our -islands, and in many other parts of the world where domesticated cattle -are reared, by two species—_H. bovis_ and _H. lineatum_, both commonly -known as bot- or warble-flies. - -The harm caused by these larvae, living as they do in the tissues of -the body, beneath the skin, by piercing holes through the integument or -skin, whereby they make their exit from the ‘warble’ or subcutaneous -tumour in which they have passed their latest larval stage, is almost -incalculable. - - [Illustration: FIG. 8.—_a_, _Hypoderma bovis_; _b_, maggot of _H. - bovis_; _c_, egg of _H. bovis_; _d_, puparium of _H. bovis_; _e_, - egg of _H. lineatum_; _f_, maggot of _H. lineatum_; _g_, _Hypoderma - lineatum_. All the figures are magnified. (From F. V. Theobald’s - _Second Report on Economic Zoology_, British Museum, 1904.)] - -Miss Ormerod, who for so many years kept alight the lamp of economic -entomology in England, published some statistics on this subject -towards the end of the last century. In 1888, out of slightly over -100,000 hides dealt with in the Newcastle cattle and skin market, -60,000 were ‘warbled,’ and the loss to the trade amounted to £15,000. -The same year at Nottingham 8500 out of 35,000 hides were largely -spoiled; at Manchester 83,500 out of 250,000 suffered from the same -cause: the losses in these towns being estimated for the year in -question at about £2000 and £17,000 respectively. Taking the average -from all sources in England, Miss Ormerod estimated the fall in value -at from 5s. to 6s. on every warbled hide. The most riddled hides—that -is, those with the most punctures—come to the sale-room during April -and May, but the trouble extends from February to September. - -There is also the loss caused by the warble to the butcher—and through -the butcher to the Army Service Corps. The presence of the fly-larva, -which is quite a large creature, induces chronic inflammation in the -tissues, and a state of things known to the trade as ‘licked beef,’ -and unless the meat-salesman cuts away the affected parts the meat is -unsaleable in the market, or greatly depreciated in value. The average -loss to the butcher on a warbled carcass is estimated at 6_s._ 8_d._ - -Finally there is a loss to the stock-raiser and dairy farmer. We shall -have occasion later to refer to the curious psychological effect the -warble-fly has upon the cattle, causing them to ‘gad’ or stampede -in wild gallops, which interferes with fattening, deteriorates the -milk-supply, and is especially injurious to cows with calf. Mr. Imms, -in his most useful summary of the warble-fly, tells us that the loss -due to _H. lineatum_ in America is calculated at 28 per cent. of their -total value of all the cattle in the States. Some authorities place -the total loss to the agricultural community in England at £2,000,000, -others at £7,000,000, a year, whilst others estimate that the loss -amounts to about £1 sterling on every head of horned cattle. - -Curiously enough, the fly itself is rarely seen, and still more rarely -taken. Mr. Imms records only two specimens of _H. bovis_ in the -collections of the British Museum, and but fifteen of _H. lineatum_. A -similar scarcity of imagos in public collections obtains on the other -side of the Atlantic, where for many years the last-named species -was alone recognised. Two years ago, however, Dr. Hadwen, working in -Canada, established the widespread existence of _H. bovis_ in the -Dominion; almost certainly it also occurs in the States; but Dr. -Hadwen had to send to Dublin for specimens with which to confirm his -find. None existed in the collections in Ottawa, and a ‘request for a -specimen ... from the Bureau of Entomology at Washington, D.C., could -not be granted owing to a scarcity of specimen’! These statements are -interesting, since at present the tanneries of Canada are working night -and day to help our shortage in leather at home. - -_H. bovis_ measures ⅝ in. in length, _H. lineatum_, somewhat less -robust, ½ in.; the hairy covering of the last named is of a foxy red -at the tail end, while that of _H. bovis_ is yellow, both at the tail -end and towards the front of the body. The flies are most abundant -during July and August, though they are believed to occur throughout -the summer. At Athenry (co. Galway) _H. lineatum_ is common by the -middle of May. They fly very rapidly, and are difficult to follow with -the eye. They rejoice in warm, sunny weather, and remain in retirement -during cold or cloudy days. Hadwen describes the egg-laying by the -female ‘as a sort of frenzied process, the fly striking’ with its -ovipositor twenty or thirty times rapidly, then leaving the animal for -fifteen minutes or so, when the process was repeated. The eggs are -attached one at a time to the hairs of the cattle and very close to the -base of each hair, not near the tip, where the horse bot-fly deposits -its ova. The eggs of _H. bovis_ are scattered and isolated; those of -_H. lineatum_ are arranged in rows of some seven or more half-way up -the hair and are contiguous. The favourite region for placing the -eggs is on the hock and on the back of the knee, or on the thighs and -flanks, and hence the American cowboys call the insect the ‘heel-fly.’ -Undoubtedly by standing with their legs in water the herd is delivered -from the pest—at any rate, for the time. - - [Illustration: FIG. 9.—Eggs of _H. lineatum_, attached to hair of cow. - Five of the eggs are hatched and six unhatched. Magnified 15 times. - (From Carpenter, Hewitt, and Reddin, _Journ. Dept. Agric. Ireland_, - xv., 1914.)] - -The eggs are large, 1·25 mm. in length, and enclosed in a whitish -shell, which is prolonged behind into a brownish foot, and this foot, -which exudes some sticky excretion, adheres to the ruminant’s hairs. -The foot of the egg-shell, in fact, consists of two lobes or valves, -which clasp the hair between their sticky inner surfaces. - - [Illustration: FIG. 10.—Eggs of _H. bovis_ attached to hairs. Note - attachment near base. Slightly enlarged. (From Hadwen.)] - -Within the egg the youngest of the four larval stages is maturing. When -hatched it is less than 1 mm. long, but it is ‘a terror for its size,’ -being armed with a formidable spine and two hooks in the mouth, and -with rows of strong spines on all the body-segments. Later, we find -a second stage, very much smoother and less spiny than the first and -this lies within the tissues of the host, embedded in its muscles and -membranes, notably in the submucous coat of the gullet; and now the -question confronts us, which once confronted George III apropos of -the apple in the apple dumpling, ‘How the devil did it get in?’ There -seems to be with _Hypoderma_ but two possible modes of entrance into -the body of its host—that is, domesticated cattle: (1) The eggs, or the -newly hatched larvae, are licked up by the tongue, as are the eggs of -the horse bot-fly—and this might be held to explain the not infrequent -occurrence of the second larval stage in the walls of the oesophagus; -or (2) the larvae bore their way directly through the skin. From -experiments carried on for several years which show that cattle unable -to lick themselves are not protected from warbles, Professor G. H. -Carpenter of the Royal College of Science, Dublin, concluded that the -larvae do not enter by the mouth. During the summer of 1914, he and his -able assistant, the late Mr. T. R. Hewitt, definitely proved that ‘the -newly hatched maggot does bore through the skin of cattle’; probably -after an ecdysis they find their way to the submucous coat and muscles -of the gullet, and here for a while they rest. I quote from the account -of Carpenter and Hewitt some of their most crucial experiments carried -out at the Athenry and Ballyhaise Stations of the Irish Department of -Agriculture:— - - In July 1914, twenty-four maggots were hatched in the incubator, and - some of these were used for observations as to behaviour when placed - on a calf’s body. Glaser, in 1913, had tried to carry out observations - of this kind by placing maggots on a shaved portion of a calf’s skin; - he found that they made no effort to bore through. Instead of being - shaved, a small patch of the shoulder of one of the Ballyhaise calves - was clipped, so as to have the conditions as normal as possible, when - newly hatched maggots of _H. bovis_ were placed on it. Immediately - they started crawling down the clipped hairs to the skin, and, as soon - as they reached the surface, they began to burrow. On account of their - small size it is hard to discern them, but by carefully watching - through a lens it was seen that they enter perpendicularly to the - surface, evidently cutting into the epidermis with their mouth-hooks - and occasionally bending their bodies. Mr. R. G. Whelan, A.R.C.Sc.I., - Superintendent of the Ballyhaise Agricultural Station, kindly helped - in the observations and confirmed them. Six hours after being placed - on the calf, the maggots disappeared completely. Next morning the - spots where they had entered were marked by little pimples, like - those of the Athenry animals, easily to be seen with the naked eye. - These increased slightly in size, but soon healed up, and in less - than a week not a trace of the maggots’ entrances could be found. The - boring-in of the maggots seemed at first to cause the calf a little - pain, but the symptoms of discomfort soon passed away. - - We have still to find out what happens to the first-stage larva after - it has bored into the skin and how far it travels before it undergoes - its first moult. Gläser found that some eggs of _H. lineatum_ laid - on his trousers hatched, and that a maggot bored right through into - his own skin. From symptoms of swelling and pain in various regions - he concluded that this maggot travelled to his gullet, and he finally - extracted it (in the second stage) from his mouth.[4] - - [Illustration: FIG. 11.—Entrance hole of _H. lineatum_ maggot into - the skin of a cow. The hairs around the hole have been clipped short. - The white incrustation is due to a discharge from the hole, which has - hardened. Magnified 12 times. (From Carpenter, Hewitt, and Reddin, - _Journ. Dept. Agric., Ireland_, xv., 1914.)] - -Perhaps in the first stage they may be carried by the blood stream. -They seem in their second larval stage to wander freely through the -tissues, especially through the muscular tissues, of the body of -their host—usually working upwards, and not infrequently reaching the -neighbourhood of the vertebral column before taking up—still in the -second larval stage—their final position, where their presence gives -rise to the ‘warbles,’ or subcutaneous cysts or tumours, in which the -third and fourth larval stages are passed. - -[4] _The Irish Naturalist_, October 1914. - -It seems odd that an insect pest, which so seriously affects our supply -of leather, of meat, and of milk, should have been studied for over a -century and yet conceal its chief secret from man. But the problem is -much more difficult than the layman thinks. - -Whatever be the route the maggot travels through the body of the calf -or cow, by the spring the fourth larval stage—when it is about an inch -long, and perhaps half as much in breadth—is reached in the ‘warble’ -or cyst, under the skin. Here, nourished by the products of the -inflammation it sets up, and breathing by two spiracles at the hinder -end of its body, which are directed to the opening of the ‘warble’ -which it has pierced through the skin, the larva rests until one fine -morning it pushes its way, aided by its stout bristles, through the -opening and tumbles into the outer world. - -Apparently it does not think much of its new surroundings, for it loses -no time in hiding under some clod of earth or stone or crevice in the -soil, and straightway turns into a dark brown pupa or chrysalis. This -stage lasts three to four weeks, and then the perfect fly emerges, and -will soon be ready to lay her eggs on some new victim. - -[Illustration: FIG. 12.—Cow being chased by fly. Note terrified look of -eyes. (From Hadwen.)] - -As a rule it is the yearlings who suffer most, and then the -two-year-olds; the older cattle being comparatively immune. The -inexplicable terror which the warble-fly induces in its victims is -testified to on all hands, but has never been adequately explained. -_Hypoderma_ does not bite, neither does it sting. Many other -blood-sucking insects, whose puncture must involve some pain, are -tolerated by cattle with a flick of the tail, or are frightened off by -a gesture of the head; but the presence of the warble-fly induces a -mysterious fear which rapidly spreads through a herd, and results in -a general stampede—often referred to by cattle-breeders as the ‘gad.’ -This terror communicates itself even to the ‘stalled ox,’ and cattle -confined within cowsheds show symptoms of extraordinary unrest when the -fly is abroad amongst their kin in the pastures. The resulting evils -are, of course, far graver in the unlimited prairies of the West—the -great cattle-breeding districts of the United States and Canada—than in -our carefully hedged or fenced meadows. A great many ‘dips,’ ointments, -and chemical solutions have been recommended for the prevention of -the grubs in cattle, but none have proved entirely satisfactory. The -tedious method of removing the grub from the tumour is the only safe -one. This can be done by the mere pressure of the fingers when the -grub is nearly mature and ready to leave its host, or by the use of -small forceps should the grub be young and recalcitrant. Once removed -the grub should be immediately destroyed, and some such antiseptic as -coal-tar applied to the lips of the vacated tumour. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) - - PART I - - Where the water is stopped in a stagnant pond, - Danced over by the midge. - (R. BROWNING, _By the Fireside_.) - - -There is no zoological distinction between a mosquito, a gnat, or -a midge. But, as a matter of convenience, we might confine the -term ‘gnat’ to the genus _Culex_, the term ‘mosquito’ to the genus -_Anopheles_, and the term ‘midge’ to the genus _Ceratopogon_ and its -congeners, whose collocation with the naked knees of the Highlander is -said to have given rise to the ‘Highland Fling.’ - -There is no doubt about it that both the mosquito and the gnat are -extraordinarily beautiful insects. This fact, however, has been veiled -from the public partly owing to their small size and more especially -because of their irritating bite, which causes the sufferer to kill -a mosquito at sight rather than examine its fairy-like beauty or its -fascinating dances in the air, far surpassing in grace and agility -anything seen in the Russian ballet. But biting is the dominating note -of a mosquito, and we may as well consider, to begin with, how it bites. - -If we examine the head of a mosquito we shall find that it is shaped -like a circular cushion bearing two enormous eyes—so large that in the -male they touch above the forehead and almost meet below the chin. Each -eye consists of hundreds of facets of a brilliant green hue, set in -a darkish background, like emeralds arranged on a black surface. The -head also bears a quantity of hairs and flattened scales whose number, -shape, and arrangement are of considerable systematic value. - -The following are the appendages of the head:— - -1. A pair of antennae, which are markedly different in the two sexes. - -2. A pair of mandibles. These are absent in the male. - -3. A pair of first maxillae, each of which has a jointed tactile palp. - -4. A pair of second maxillae which have fused together to form a deeply -grooved soft process in which the other appendages lie. - -Beside these four pairs of appendages, which are in reality modified -limbs, there are two median processes, which project one from the -top, the other from the bottom, of the mouth, like elongated and -hardened upper and lower lips. These are the median labrum above—a -deeply grooved structure whose edges approximate and almost touch, thus -forming a tube along which the blood of the victim is sucked. Lastly, -there is the hypopharynx—sometimes termed the tongue—a median structure -a double-edged sword, rising from the bottom of the mouth, and it is -this that is the cause of all the trouble. - - [Illustration: FIG. 13.—Side view of the head of a female _Anopheles - maculipennis_ (magnification about 20), with the various mouth - parts separated, but in the relative position in which they lie - when enclosed in the groove of the labium. This figure shows the - characteristic cephalic scales, _a_, Antennae; _cs_, cephalic scales; - _cl_, clypeus; _lxe_, labrum + epipharynx; _mn_, mandible; _hp_, - hypopharynx; _mx_, first maxilla; _li_, labium; _mp_, maxillary palps. - (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - - [Illustration: FIG. 14.—Transverse section through the middle of the - proboscis of a female _Anopheles maculipennis_, showing the relative - position of the parts when at rest. Two tracheae and two pairs of - extensor and flexor muscles are seen in the labrum. _lxe_, Labrum + - epipharynx; _tr_, trachea; _mus_, muscles; _hp_, hypopharynx; _sal_, - salivary duct; _mx_, first maxilla; _mn_, mandible. (From Nuttall and - Shipley.)] - -A glance at Fig. 13 will show how these various mouth appendages -can by a skilful use of dissecting needles be separated out, but in -nature they are all packed together in a case; the arrangement in the -case is shown by Fig. 14, which represents a transverse section of -the proboscis. The term ‘proboscis’ is given to the totality of all -these structures taken and packed together. With the exception of the -labium and of the tactile maxillary palps all the mouth appendages -lance into the skin. The proboscis of the male is, however, too weak -to pierce the human integument, and it is the female which does all -the damage. When a mosquito is going to bite, she alights so gently -that her approach is unperceived, and she proceeds to thrust her -arsenal of weapons into the epidermis of her victim almost unfelt; the -feeling comes later. These weapons are all guided, by the forked end -of the softened labium, just as one’s finger-tips guide the end of -a billiard-cue. These ‘mouth parts’ are exceedingly fine, extremely -sharp-edged structures, whose consistency is about that of whalebone, -and both the mandibles and the maxillae have a toothed, serrated edge -(Fig. 15). They are partly pushed in by muscles in the head, partly, -I think, by the lowering of the body, and they sink slowly and surely -into the flesh with as much ease as a paper-knife will penetrate a -cream-cheese. But as they sink deeper and deeper into the integument -the body of the mosquito approaches nearer and nearer to the skin of -the victim, and the labium is pressed farther and farther backwards -until at the end of a satisfactory puncture the distal and proximal -parts of the labium are parallel and touching. - - [Illustration: FIG. 15.—A side view of the labellae and - piercing-organs of the proboscis of a female _Anopheles maculipennis_, - dissected out to show the tips of the mandibles, maxillae, and labrum - + epipharynx. The hypopharynx is not shown, _li_, Labium; _lxe_, - labrum + epipharynx; _mx_, first maxilla; _mn_, mandible; _la_, - labellae. (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -It is rather an interesting point that the labium does not enter the -skin, because the larvae of certain _Filarias_—one of which produces -elephantiasis in man, and the other severe heart trouble in the dog—are -found in pairs—probably a male and a female—in the labia of mosquitos. -How exactly these nematode larvae leave the labium of the mosquito, and -enter the body of the man and the dog, has not definitely, I believe, -been cleared up; but that they do enter the human and the canine skin -seems certain. - -We have mentioned that the labrum is a grooved tube with its edges -practically in proximity, and it is up this tube that the blood of the -bitten is sucked by the well-known suctorial pharynx which occupies so -large a part of the interior of the head of a mosquito. Much the most -dangerous weapon of the whole armoury, however, is the hypopharynx. -This is shaped like a double-edged sword with a very minute groove -running down the centre; this groove is so minute that Professor -Nuttall and I and others for some time took it to be a closed tube. -It receives at its base the products of the salivary glands of the -mosquito, and it is these products which contain the organisms which -cause malaria—a disease which has probably caused more trouble and has -played a greater part in the history of the world than any other malady -to which humanity is heir. Down this minute, microscopic groove has -flowed the fluid which has closed the continent of Africa for countless -centuries to civilisation, and which has played a dominating part in -destroying the civilisations of ancient Greece and of Rome. - -When the adult mosquitos (the imagines) leave their pupa-cases they are -unable to pierce the human skin until the mouth parts have hardened, -and this takes at least six hours. In England they can undoubtedly -feed twenty-four hours after leaving the pupa-case. When feeding, -both the sensory antennae and the tactile maxillary palps are thrust -forward at right angles to the proboscis. They thus test the place -where the two-lobed extremity of the labium will guide the battery of -stylets into the substance they are feeding on. The female is much more -voracious than the male, which, as we have mentioned above, cannot -pierce the human integument, and has to be content with a vegetarian -diet. Sometimes the effort even of the female mosquito to insert its -proboscis is fruitless, and we have watched a mosquito attempt four -times to pierce the skin before it drew blood. If undisturbed during -the meal the suctorial repast may last some two or three and a half -minutes. So greedy at times is the mosquito that she resembles Baron -Munchausen’s horse after the adventure with the portcullis—what is -flowing in at one end is flowing out at the other. In fact, as Dr. -Johnson said of the boys at a school ‘where discipline was maintained -without recourse to corporal punishment,’ ‘But, sir, what they gain -at one end they lose at the other!’ After the process of biting, of -sinking-in of the piercing needles, is complete, the proboscis is -withdrawn, and to do this the mosquito braces herself on her legs and -raises her body. - -Another curious feature about the head of _Anopheles_ is that it is -pierced by two chitinous, symmetrical tunnels—tubes which are open at -each end with trumpet-shaped orifices. The use of these is probably to -act as a stay or strut to strengthen the chitinous exoskeleton of the -head; but these queer galleries or tubes also to some extent act as -attachments for muscles. - -The antennae vary very much in the two sexes. In the female there -are fifteen segments, each bearing a ring of hairs, but of small and -disproportionate size, whereas in the male the bushy character of the -hairs is conspicuous even to the naked eye. In fact, it is the easiest -criterion for judging the sex of the insect. At the base of the first -joint of the male antenna is a deep cup-shaped structure packed with -sense organs, and containing a large nerve ganglion. There are sixteen -segments in the whole antenna, one more than in the female. The hairs -are capable of movement, and as a rule are kept closed on the shaft of -the antenna whilst not in use; when evening comes on they are spread -out. There seems little doubt that these organs are auditory and help -the male in searching for the female. - -The beautiful transparent wings of the mosquito are beset with minute -spikes, which serve to break up the light and to give rise to the -many-coloured iridescence of the creature’s wings. The posterior border -of the wing bears rows of beautifully graded scales. These add much -to the symmetry and beauty of the whole structure. Just behind it are -two balancers or halteres—a name derived from the Greek word ἁλτῆρες, -meaning a kind of dumb-bells which athletes used in the stadium when -jumping. These so-called balancers project outwards and backwards from -the body when the wings are in a position of flight. - -A curious distinction between the _Culex_ and _Anopheles_ is in regard -to the position assumed by the insects when they rest. In _Anopheles_ -the proboscis and body are almost in one line, and the axis of the -body is at an angle with the surface upon which it rests. _Culex_, on -the other hand, has its proboscis at a slight angle with its body, and -its body is almost parallel to the surface upon which it is perching. -_Culex_ has a much more hump-backed appearance than _Anopheles_, and -its legs are considerably shorter and stouter. The insect generally -rests upon four out of six legs; in the former case the hinder pair are -held out and curved upwards. The hind legs not infrequently serve as a -test for food. When feeding upon sweetened milk or fruit, the moment -the hind leg touches the fluid or juice the insect will wheel round and -at once begin to feed. - -_Anopheles maculipennis_ is very widely distributed, and it has been -recorded from most parts of North America and Europe, and from many -parts of Asia. Probably the species is much more widely distributed -than we have any record, but individuals do not wander very far, -of their own accord, from the breeding-places, though they may be -dispersed by the wind. Cases are known where they have been blown as -far as ten or even twenty miles; and in camping in Africa it is always -well to keep to the windward of a native village. They are also -carried about by trains, motors, and steamers. They do not indulge in -any such voluntary migratory flights as the locusts, although some -such flights have been from time to time recorded, but these ‘swarms’ -are probably due to a high wind catching a large number of mosquitos -temporarily associated. - -In a joint paper which Professor Nuttall and I wrote some years ago, we -drew attention to a case in which mosquitos came aboard a ship some ten -miles from land, and to another in which a Spanish barque from Rio was -detained in the South Atlantic quarantine station of the United States. -The vessel was so much infested with mosquitos that it was rendered -nearly uninhabitable, and the United States quarantine officer reported -that when the forecastle was opened after fumigation ‘the mosquitos -could be scooped up by hand.’ The master of the barque was positive -that there had been no mosquitos on board until the twenty-second day -out. Howard quotes a letter from a General living in Texas in which he -states he has ‘twice seen flights of _Culicidae_,’ but as the species -and the genus are not given, much of the interest of the statement -evaporates. Generals living in Texas are not invariably remarkable for -meticulous accuracy in recondite scientific matters. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) - - PART II - - There in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn - Among the river sallows, borne aloft - Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies. - (JOHN KEATS, _To Autumn_.) - - -The female imago hibernates. Finsch made observations and found it -hibernating on the frozen Siberian tundras, beneath the moss and snow. -Sterling found them in North America when the snow was melting, in -great numbers, and he and his party were subsequently terribly bitten. -There is no doubt that female imagines live throughout the winter, and -they can be found in England, hibernating in cellars, old out-houses, -chicken-houses, or disused farm buildings. These hibernating females -disappear early in May, presumably having laid their eggs. Dr. Thayer -of Baltimore describes these creatures, having found them on the roofs -and walls of barns near New Orleans. Whether the male also hibernates -is doubtful. Grassi says he never found the male of _A. maculipennis_ -in the winter, only fertilised females. But as the warm weather sets in -the female generally becomes active and bites, and the native American -Indians consider these elderly and famished females give more annoyance -than at any other stage in the life-cycle of either sex. In the warmer -climate of Southern Italy they not infrequently hibernate in grottos -and caves. At times they occur in such numbers that they can be swept -up. After depositing their eggs the hibernating females probably die. -This usually happens in May. - -In the old days we used to collect gnats, keep them in a receptacle -unprovided with any food, and when, after a couple of days, they died -of starvation we wrote poems or essays on the ‘Transitoriness of Life’ -and the ‘Evanescence of Time.’ - - The thin-winged gnats their transient time employ, - Reeling through sunbeams in a dance of joy. - (MRS. NORTON.) - -Nowadays, we feed them. Bananas, sweetened milk, pineapple, or almost -any other vegetable juice, is their diet, and in captivity they will -live for weeks. At Cambridge in 1900 (July to August), Professor -Nuttall was successful in keeping females alive on a diet of bananas -and water from two to eight weeks, but it was found essential to keep -the atmosphere fairly moist and the food fresh. Grassi found that he -could only keep _Anopheles_ alive in his laboratory in Rome for a month. - -Both _Anopheles_ and _Culex_—at any rate, in captivity—lay their eggs -early in the morning. Apparently the nature of the food has some -effect upon their fertility, certain observers stating that when male -and female are fed on vegetable food alone there is no fertilisation -and no oviposition. A diet of blood evidently assists the female to -lay her eggs, and perhaps to get them fertilised. One of our female -_Anopheles_ laid a batch of 146 eggs, and subsequently laid six more. -But, as a rule, a fertilised female does not lay a second batch unless -she receives a second meal of blood. The eggs are laid two or three -days after the meal. There is also some evidence that a meal of blood -is necessary if fertilisation is to be effected. As Austen says in -_The Report of the Sierra Leone Expedition of the Liverpool School of -Tropical Medicine_:— - - The following law is likely to hold good for the _Culicidae_ which - feed on man—at least for the common species; although these gnats can - live indefinitely on fruit, the female requires a meal of blood both - for fertilisation and for the development of the ova. In other words, - the insects need blood for the propagation of their species. - -Undoubtedly, if mosquitos ever talk, they would talk like Mr. -Waterbrook, Mrs. Henry Spiker—Hamlet’s aunt—and the ‘simpering -fellow with weak legs’ talked when David Copperfield dined with the -first-named at Ely Place, Holborn. The burden of their song was: ‘Give -us blood.’ - -But a word of caution must be given here. Most of these deductions are -based upon mosquitos in captivity; whether the same be true of them in -natural conditions is not quite certain. If it be so it is difficult to -see how these countless millions of gnats and mosquitos which dwell in -the barren regions around the polar circle ever keep going. - -It very frequently happens in the Animal Kingdom that females are much -more numerous, as well as much larger, than the males.[5] As Kipling -tells us: ‘The female of the species is more deadly than the male,’ -but Professor Nuttall and I did not notice that this was the case with -_Anopheles_. - -[5] This is a fact I have always tried to conceal from Mrs. Pankhurst; -but, sooner or later, she is bound to find it out. - -There is some evidence that the male hatches out earlier than the -female, and that in Southern Europe there may be three or four -generations in the course of the season: the first beginning in April -and the fourth taking place between the middle of September and the -middle of October. After that date no larvae were found. About four -generations also occurred in the neighbourhood of Cambridge, according -to observations of Professor Nuttall. - -Kerschbaumer has calculated that if the average number of eggs laid by -a female be 150, the number of the descendants by the fourth generation -would amount to 31 millions. This readily accounts for the fact -that in certain parts of the world they occur in perfectly enormous -numbers, and if it be true that blood is essential for fertilisation -and oviposition, very few of these potential mothers can breed. In -nature they will feed on a great number of vegetable juices—melons, -wild cherry-blossom, bananas, oranges, overripe mangoes; they suck -the ‘juices’ of allied species of insects just when the imago is -issuing from the pupa-case and before their integument is hardened, -or they pierce the soft skin of the cicada, and occasionally attack -the chrysalids of a butterfly. One of the most curious sources of food -are very young trout. The adult insect attacks these _petits poissons -filiformes_, ‘literally sucking out their unsuspective little brains -before they could escape.’ Grassi is doubtful whether the adult males -feed at all. He states that he never found any food in their stomach, -nor has he ever seen a male feed. But Professor Nuttall’s experiments -in Cambridge prove that males were seen repeatedly to feed, and to feed -hungrily, on cherries, dried fruits, dates, and bananas.[6] - -[6] Owing to the recent restrictions on imported fruit imposed by the -Government the food of these beautiful little insects will be further -diminished. But what does our Government know or care about insects? - - [Illustration: FIG. 16.—View of my arm being sucked by _Anopheles - maculipennis_ (female). (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -As mentioned before, the proboscis of the male is too weak to pierce -the human integument, but Howard notes that it will suck up water, -molasses, and beer; and Gray, at Santa Lucia, mentions that in that -island _Culex_ had developed a marked fondness for port wine. One -particularly favourite food is rose-buds covered with aphides—probably -due to the sweetened secretion which these insects exude. The feeding -is sometimes very ravenous, so that the insects become distended, the -bright colour of blood, or coloured sap, readily shining through the -joints of their chitinous armour. - -The reaction to heat and cold is that common to many insects. During -the winter the imagines become torpid, quiescent, and cease to worry -one. With returning warmth they become lively again, and generally -wake from their winter sleep in a state of considerable hunger. They -are insects which prefer darkness to light, and during the day-time -congregate in caverns and grottos, under the shade of trees and bushes, -beneath bridges, in barns, and so on. As the sun sinks they emerge from -their hiding-places and fly during the night. - -Cambon, writing on _A. maculipennis_ found in the Roman Campagna, says -that imagines ‘appear a few minutes after sunset and disappear a few -minutes before sunrise.’ We were able to confirm this at Cambridge. The -insects retired into the shadiest parts of the boxes in which they were -living until the time of sunset, when a loud buzzing was heard, and the -insects promptly fed on the food which they had neglected during the -day. We kept our tame mosquitos in a huge gauze tent, and at night they -invariably accumulated on the side which was illuminated by a lamp. -Such mosquitos as were kept in a glass lamp-chimney, closed with gauze -at each end, invariably flew towards the end which was held towards the -light. People who are experienced with mosquitos sometimes keep the -room in which they are sleeping dark and place a light in an adjoining -room, leaving the door ajar, and thus lure them away. It seems a -curious thing that, while these insects are repelled by the diffused -light of the sun, they are attracted by the more concentrated light of -a lamp or candle, but such is the psychology of _Anopheles_. - -It is not perhaps solely the influence of light; it may be the -influence of colour; for light is very rarely entirely colourless. In -the many experiments carried on in Cambridge on the natural history of -the mosquito, _A. maculipennis_, not the least interesting were those -directed to ascertaining the insect’s preference for colour. It had -been noticed by many observers that they frequented dark-coloured areas -rather than light: for instance, note how few mosquitos there are on -the white collar of the gentleman in the Frontispiece compared with the -number on his dark head and coat. Austen had pointed out that in a -room with a dark dado it was on the dado that the mosquitos were found -rather than on the whitened walls above. Buchanan noted that the men -when collecting _Anopheles_ in an Indian hospital found they were to -be most easily got by hanging up a dark coat or two upon the walls. A -white coat they always avoided. The proverbial yellow dog of the West -is much less bitten than the Newfoundland, and persons wearing dark -socks and black shoes are more bitten than those who wear light ones. -Natives, although they suffer less in health having acquired a certain -immunity, are undoubtedly more bitten than the Europeans. - -The experiments we carried on at Cambridge were as follows: In the -large gauze cubical tent in which the mosquitos were bred and kept, a -number of pasteboard boxes without lids, measuring 20 by 16 by 10 cm., -were piled up. The boxes were lined with seventeen different coloured -cloths, and were placed in rows one above another, and the order was -changed each day, so that no question of height from the floor or -better illumination entered into the problem. Counts were made of the -inhabitants of each box on each of seventeen consecutive days, with the -following results:— - - Average number - Colour of box of mosquitos - in each box. - Navy blue 108 - Dark red 90 - Brown (reddish) 81 - Scarlet 59 - Black 49 - Slate grey 31 - Dark green (olive) 24 - Violet 18 - Leaf green 17 - Blue 14 - Pearl grey 9 - Pale green 4 - Light blue (forget-me-not) 3 - Ochre 2 - White 2 - Orange 1 - Yellow 0 - —— - Total 512 - -It will be noted that about the level of the pearl grey there was a -marked drop. Pale green and pale light blue, ochre, white, orange, -and yellow—especially the last two colours—seem positively to repel -the insect. Our khaki-clothed soldiers have other advantages than -invisibility to the foe. This matter is worth pursuing farther, and it -might be possible to design mosquito-traps lined with navy-blue; by -periodically exposing them to chloroform or benzine, or by sweeping -out the contents, considerable numbers of mosquitos might be destroyed. -A dark blue, sticky solution might be even more effective. After -reading this chapter in the _British Medical Journal_, Mr. J. Cropper -of Chepstow wrote to me as follows:— - - Seeing your article on Colour Selection by _Anopheles_ reminds - me that I found the dark navy-blue lining of my tent this summer - (in Palestine) extremely attractive to mosquitos, almost entirely - _Anopheles_; and when the sun got hot I always noticed an increase in - their numbers, presumably as they came from the herbage and trees near - by. No one ever slept in the tent, and I never found _Anopheles_ bite - in the day-time. - -The best way of ‘downing’ mosquitos is to prevent the imago hatching, -and this, as has been indicated, can be done by killing the larvae and -the pupae, which is effected by brushing oil on the water in which -they live. The petrol or crude mineral oil should be renewed from time -to time as it evaporates. When once the mosquitos are hatched, every -effort should be made to keep them outside dwelling-houses by means of -wire screens, but if that be impracticable mosquito-nets should be used -at nights. Professor Lefroy recommends one with sixteen to eighteen -meshes ‘to the inch.’ They may be driven away from a room by burning -pyrethum powder in it, or vaporising cresol or carbolic acid, but of -course this must only be done when a window is open, through which they -can escape. As regards the human body, mosquitos may to some extent be -kept away by smearing the skin with the various essential oils—such -as eucalyptus oil or lemon-grass oil, &c. Mosquitos not infrequently -bite through the socks, but wearing two pairs of socks instead of one -pair, or inserting paper under the socks, often prevents their reaching -the skin, as the proboscis is not long enough to penetrate two woollen -socks, or strong enough to pierce the paper. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) - - PART III - - - The tiny-trumpeting gnat can break our dream - When sweetest. (TENNYSON.) - -It is now pretty well accepted that the auditory organs of the mosquito -are situated in the antennae. Sixty years ago Johnston of Baltimore -was investigating the hearing-apparatus of a gnat, and came to the -conclusion that— - - The animal may judge of the _intensity_ or _distance_ of the source - of sound by the _quantity_ of the impression; of the _pitch_, or - _quality_, by the consonance of particular whorls of stiff hairs, - according to their lengths; and of the _direction_ in which the - modulations travel, by the manner in which they strike upon the - _antennae_, or may be made to meet either _antenna_, in consequence - of an opposite movement of that part. That the male should be endowed - with superior acuteness of the sense of hearing appears from the - fact that he must seek the female for sexual union either in the dim - twilight or in the dark night, when nothing save her sharp humming - noise can serve him as a guide. - - [Illustration: FIG. 17.—A, _Anopheles maculipennis_, male, showing - large, feathered antennae. B, Head of female, showing antennae with - feathering little developed. (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -Johnston also notes that the male mosquito is the more difficult to -catch. The bushy, complicated antennae of the male show that of the -two sexes, with the mosquito, as with man, the male is primarily the -hearer, the one who has to listen. - -Another American, Mayer, twenty years later made some interesting -experiments confirming the views held by Johnston. He managed to cement -with shellac a species of _Culex_ on to a glass slide, and, placing -it beneath a low-powered microscope, watched the response of the -antennae to tuning-forks of varying strengths. He found that under the -influence of a fork producing 512 vibrations per second certain hairs -of the antennae vigorously vibrated, whilst others were left unmoved. -He measured the amplitudes of the vibrations of these hairs under the -influence of the sound emitted by various tuning-forks. Different hairs -were seen to vibrate to different notes. Mayer also observed that when -the sound came from a direction in line with the long axis of the -antennary hair vibrations ceased altogether. Hence he argued that the -antennae could register the direction whence the sound came. Observing -the antennae under the microscope, he confirmed the view that the -vibrations ceased when the hairs pointed towards the source of sound, -and on drawing a line in the direction in which the hair pointed, he -found that it always cut within 5° of the position of the source of -sound. He concludes:— - - The song of the female vibrates the fibrillae of one of the antennae - more forcibly than those of the other. The insect spreads the angle - between his antennae, and thus, as I have observed, brings the - fibrillae, situated within the angle formed by the antennae, in a - direction approximately parallel to the axis of the body. The mosquito - now turns his body in the direction of that antenna whose fibrils are - most affected, and thus gives greater intensity to the vibrations - of the fibrils of the other antenna. When he has thus brought the - vibrations of the antennae to equality of intensity he has placed his - body in the direction of the radiation of the sound, and he directs - his flight accordingly, and from my experiments it would appear that - he can thus guide himself to within 5° of the direction of the female. - -There has always been some divergence of opinion as to how the buzzing -sound to which the male so readily reacts is produced. Howard once -thought that it was due to vibrations of certain chitinous processes -in the large tracheae. Our experiments showed, however, that when the -wing was cut off closer and closer to its origin the sound decreased in -volume, but the note progressively rose. Unlike human beings, the male -at all times emits a higher pitched note than the female, and in both -sexes the note rises after feeding. ‘The greater the meal, the higher -the note.’ This is, however, by no means confined to mosquitos. It is -a matter which any one must have noticed when assisting at a public -dinner or when dining in a college hall. - -Three unfed females gave a note of from 240 to 270 vibrations. One -unfed female gave an abnormally low note of about 175 vibrations. Four -other females, which were arranged in the order of the distension of -the abdomen, after food gave notes corresponding to 264-281-297-317 -vibrations; whereas three unfed males all gave exactly the same note -corresponding to 880 vibrations. The explanation of the higher note -of the males is probably that their wings are markedly narrower and -shorter than those of the females. - -Whilst working at _Anopheles_ the late Mr. Edwin Wilson, the artist who -was drawing our plates, observed at the base of the wing a structure -which may possibly account for the tone which is so characteristic a -feature of the buzzing. The articulation of the wing with the body is -extremely complex. There seems to be a series of structures like minute -knuckle-bones articulated with one another, and at the outer end of the -series are two ribbed rods which may play some part in the production -of the overtones. One is a chitinous bar with some fourteen or fifteen -well-marked ridges. In certain circumstances we consider that the other -toothed rod can rasp across the ridges of the bar below it. As the wing -is raised and lowered it seems probable that the slightly movable rod -would be drawn across the ridged bar. - - [Illustration: FIG. 18.—B, Right half of thorax of _Anopheles - maculipennis_, Meig, with base of right wing and right halter, - magnified about 30. A, The same magnified about 5, to show the area - which bears the stridulator. _tb_, The teeth which rasp on the ridges - borne by _bl_; _kn_, papillae on knob; _h_, distal end of halter; - _scl_, chitinous thickenings. (From Shipley and Wilson.)] - -We have mentioned above that the mosquito’s note increased in pitch as -the wings were shortened until a very short stump was left. As long -as these stumps were left a note was heard, and these stumps would -undoubtedly include the apparatus just described, for it is next -and nighest the insertion of the wing into the body. But Dr. Nuttall -found that when this short stump was removed all perceptible sound -ceased, which is certainly an argument in favour of these rods and bars -playing some part in the production of the buzzing, and in opposition -to the view of Howard and others that the buzzing is caused by certain -chitinous structures in the tracheae. - -M. J. Perez[7] has carefully gone into the question of the production -of sound in the Diptera. He claims to have shown experimentally that -the stigmata take no part in the production of sound. ‘Les causes du -bourdonnement résident certainement dans les ailes.’ He, too, points -out that if the wings are cut short the notes become more acute, until -the _timbre_ resembles that of certain interrupters which break and -make an electric conductor. This sound we should attribute to the -stridulator described above. M. Perez definitely states that both in -the Diptera and in the Hymenoptera the buzzing is due to two causes: -‘L’une, les vibrations dont l’articulation de l’aile est le siége et -qui constituent le vrai bourdonnement; l’autre, le frottement des -ailes contre l’air, effet qui modifie plus ou moins le premier.’ The -apparatus we have described is, we believe, the mechanism by means of -which the first vibrations are produced. - -[7] _Compt. Rend. Acad. Paris_ (1878), lxxxvii, p. 378. - -In the same periodical M. Jousset de Bellesme[8] confirms the statement -that both Dipterous and Hymenopterous insects emit two sounds—one deep -and one acute, and states that the latter is usually the octave of the -former. It is this double note which gives rise to the peculiar buzzing -associated with these two orders of insects. M. de Bellesme, like M. -Perez, discards the view that acute sounds are due to any action of the -issuing air in the stigmata, and attributes it to the vibrations of -the pieces of the thorax which support the wing, and which are moved -by the muscles of flight. It is usually stated that these muscles -are not inserted into the wing, but into the sides of the thorax, to -which the wing is so attached that when the lateral walls of this -part of the body are deformed by the action of the muscles the wings -move up and down. But whether this be the case or not, it is clear -that the vibrations of the sides of the thorax caused by the muscles -of flight—and causing the vibrations of the wing—will synchronise in -number with these wing vibrations, and will give forth the same note. -The existence of the higher note —‘usually the octave’ of the one -produced by the wing vibrations—is unexplained by this view. It is, -however, easily explicable if such a stridulating organ as we have -described at the base of the wing in _Anopheles maculipennis_ be found -in other Diptera and in Hymenopterous insects. - -[8] _Compt. Rend. Acad. Paris_ (1878), lxxxvii, p. 535. - -In our paper Mr. Wilson and I thought it well to figure the upper -surface of the halter as seen under a high magnification. The drawing -showed the hinge on which the halter quivers—and certain basal -papillae, as Weinland[9] calls them. There is little doubt that the -main function of the halteres is that of balancing and orientating the -insect. They may, however, have a secondary function; in some flies -they are known to vibrate with extreme rapidity. It is just possible -that in these rapid vibrations the papillae of the concave surface -rubbing against those of the convex basal plate may produce a note. -As long ago as 1764 von Gleichen-Russworm[10] observed that when the -halteres of the common house-fly are removed the volume of the buzzing -diminished. This, however, in all probability is due to the diminished -activity of the wings. On the other hand, Professor J. Stanley Gardiner -informs us that he has noticed that mosquitos still continue to give -forth a faint note even when their wings are quite at rest, and this -note may possibly be caused by the halteres. - -[9] _Zeit. f. wissensch. Zool._ (1891), li, p. 55. - -[10] _Geschichte der gemeinen Stubenfliege._ Nuremberg, 1764. - -The part which sound plays in the life of the mosquito has not been -very fully recognised. Grassi says that people who are talking are -more liable to be bitten by _Anopheles_ than people who are silent—and -quite properly, we think; people are apt to talk too much, especially -in trains. Joly observes in Madagascar that mosquitos are attracted by -music. When he played a stringed instrument the quiescent mosquitos in -his room began to fly about, and if the windows were open mosquitos -were attracted from the outside into his room, and he notes that -mosquitos are attracted by musicians when at work, or should we say—at -play? - -Two curious instances—one recorded by Howard and the other printed -in a letter to _The Times_—of the attraction that electric buzzings -have on these insects may be given. Mr. A. de P. Weaver, an electrical -engineer, of Jackson, Miss., U.S.A., records that, when engaged in -some experiments in harmonic telegraphy, he observed that when the -note was raised to a certain number of vibrations per second, all the -mosquitos—not only in the room, but from the outside—would congregate -near the apparatus, and were, in fact, precipitated from the air -with a quite extraordinary force, hurling their frail bodies against -the buzzing machinery. This machinery formed, in conjunction with -sticky fly-paper, an excellent means of capturing them. Mr. Weaver -then devised a means of electrocuting the pests. He used a section -of unpainted wire screen mounted on a board with pins driven through -the meshes, the heads of the pins being flush with the surface of -the screen. The bodies of the pins were then electrically connected -together, the whole forming one electrode of the secondary coil of an -induction coil, whilst the wire screen formed the other electrode. An -alternating current of high potential was passed, and when the note -was sounded the insects precipitated themselves to their doom, being -electrocuted the moment they touched the apparatus. - -A somewhat similar story is told by Sir Hiram Maxim in _The Times_ of -October 29, 1901. One of the lamps in an installation which was put -up in Saratoga Springs, New York, hummed in an agreeable manner, and -he noticed that night after night this lamp was covered with small -insects. On closer examination he found that they were all mosquitos, -and all males. - - - - - CHAPTER VII - - THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) - - PART IV - - Gnats are unnoted wheresoe’er they fly, - But eagles gazed upon with every eye. - (SHAKESPEARE, _Rape of Lucrece_.) - - -The eggs of the mosquito are deposited in fresh water, and at first -they are white, but they very rapidly darken until they assume a -polished black appearance. Each egg is 0·72 mm. in length, and its -greatest breadth, which is somewhere about its middle, is 0·16 mm. The -egg is boat-shaped, and one end, as is usual in boats, is slightly -deeper and fuller than the other. The under surface is fluted, and -is marked by a minute network. The upper surface has a coarser -reticulation which divides the surface into nearly equal hexagonal -areas. The rim of the ‘boat’ is thickened, and these thickenings are -regularly ribbed; they extend over above the median third of the egg, -and recall the rounded float which runs along the edge of a life-boat: -and indeed they serve the same purpose, for they are composed of -air-cells, and their function is to keep the boat-shaped eggs right -side upward. Soon after the egg has been laid it is of a greyish-black -colour, but after a certain amount of attrition an outer membrane -splits off—the membrane which has given the egg its reticulated -appearance. This membrane scales off in fragments, and is of a grey -colour. The egg beneath it is glistening black—as shiny and as black as -patent leather. - -One curious fact that Professor Nuttall and I noticed in the -life-history of the egg is that when it is drawn by capillary forces -a little way out of the water on to the leaf of a water-plant or some -other half-submerged object, the blunt end always points downwards. Now -the blunt end is the head end, and thus, should hatching take place -whilst the egg is suspended half in the water and half in the air, the -larva will emerge into its proper element and not into the atmosphere. - - [Illustration: FIG. 19.—Larva and eggs of _Anopheles maculipennis_. - A, Egg seen from the side, × about 20; _fl_, the float. B, Egg seen - from the upper surface, × about 20; _fl_, ridge of air-chambers, which - acts as a float. C, Very young larval stage, × about 20; _st_, stigma. - D, Fully grown larva, × about 20; _b_, brush _ant_, antenna; _mp_, - palp of maxilla; _st_, stigma; _t_, tergum; _ap_, anal papillae. E, - Flabellum or flap, which overhangs the base of certain thoracic hairs. - F, A palmate hair, highly magnified. (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -Like other objects floating on the surface, the mosquito-egg slightly -indents the surface. The number of eggs seems to vary. According to -Grassi, each female deposits about one hundred eggs, whilst Howard puts -the number as varying from forty to one hundred. We, however, found in -captivity the female laid about one hundred and fifty. According to -Grassi, the eggs of _A. maculipennis_ lie side by side like the bridges -of boats which span the Rhine, whilst those of _A. bifurcatus_ arrange -themselves with their ends in contact, forming starlike patterns. -Unlike the eggs of the gnat (_Culex_) the eggs of _Anopheles_ do not -adhere together, and the result is they are very readily scattered -by the wind. But in sheltered places, like a laboratory aquarium, if -undisturbed, the Italian Professor found that they tended to congregate -together, as indeed do most minute objects floating on the surface of -the water. Our observations did not entirely confirm those of Grassi. -In Cambridge, at any rate, we found the eggs in our aquaria always -scattered. Very frequently empty egg-shells were met with, but they too -were scattered. As a rule, in nature, the ova are deposited in water -rich with algae or other vegetable life, and they are more frequently -in shallow than in deep water, the temperature of shallow water being -naturally somewhat higher. - -On the second or third day after oviposition (and this depends upon the -temperature), the young larva leaves the egg and begins to swim in the -water. The egg hatches by the detachment of a cap-like portion of the -anterior end of the egg-shell. There is no visible ring indicating the -limits of this operculum, but the cap is usually more or less of the -same size. Opinions differ as to how far desiccation interferes with -development of the larva in the egg-shell. They do not seem to be able -to stand more than forty-eight hours of drought. There is no evidence -that they can survive throughout the winter period. Everything that we -know indicates that the egg must pass this period within the mother’s -body, and that they only attain maturity in early spring, when the -weather becomes warmer. - -The larva of the mosquito is one of the most fascinating objects one -can watch under the microscope. It is very complex, and consists of the -usual arthropod regions of (1) the head, (2) the thorax, and (3) the -abdomen. - - [Illustration: FIG. 20.—Side view of head of a fully grown larva of - _Anopheles maculipennis_. _b_, Brush; _c_, antenna; _d_, palp of - maxilla; _m_, hooked hairs at edge of maxilla; _p_, median tuft of - hairs; _r_, thickened rim of chitinous covering to head; _s_, large, - feathered hairs which overhang head; _t_, mandible; _u_, larval eye; - _v_, eye of adult, forming above and behind _u_. (From Nuttall and - Shipley.)] - -Without going into the question of how many typical somites make up the -head, we must state that the thorax has the typical number of three, -much fused together, and the abdomen nine. The first seven of these -are very much alike; the eighth, however, bears the large stigmata or -orifices of the breathing system, and the ninth a number of beautifully -arranged hairs, by means of which the larva to a great extent steers -itself. The head resembles two-thirds of a sphere, and is covered with -a complete and clearly defined brown, chitinous case. The eyes are -lateral, and on each side we have both a simple and a compound eye. In -front of each eye is a little protuberance, which carries the antenna, -and between these two eminences a band of pigment runs across the -head, from which six symmetrically placed immovable feathered hairs -project, wreathing the head, as it were, with a halo. There are many -other hairs on the head, whose number and shape are of great systematic -importance. The anterior edge of the head carries on each side of its -under surface a conspicuous brush, very like a shaving-brush, the -constituent hairs of which are arranged in a spiral, and it is these -brushes which sweep the food into the mouth of the young and voracious -larva. The base of this brush is so arranged that when depressed and -bent towards the mouth the two brushes approximate, but each brush can -move independently and often does so: one may be depressed towards the -mouth, whilst the other remains erect. - - [Illustration: FIG. 21.—Ventral view of head of a fully grown larva - of _Anopheles maculipennis_. _b_, Brush; _c_, antenna; _d_, palp of - maxilla; _j_, stout hairs of mandible, which arrange the brush; _k_, - teeth of mandible; _m_, hooked hairs at edge of maxilla; _p_, median - tuft of hairs; _q_, the ‘underlip’ of Meinert, or metastoma; _r_, - thickened rim which passes into the soft tissues of the neck. (From - Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -The larva passes its life hanging on to the under surface of the -surface-film of the water, its dorsal surface being uppermost. In fact, -as Sidney Smith pointed out about the sloth, ‘it passes its life in a -state of suspense, like a young curate distantly related to a bishop.’ -But, since these larvae feed on any kind of organic débris that -floats up to the top and is there arrested by the surface-film, it is -obviously important that the brushes which sweep together these organic -particles and carry them to the mouth should be next the surface, and -to effect this the head must rotate through an angle of 180°; and -the head does in fact turn upside-down on the neck so sharply and -accurately that, as it comes into position, you almost think, as you -are watching it, that you hear a click, just as you do when you rotate -the diaphragm of a microscope. - -The mouth parts now begin to vibrate upwards and forwards, and the -brushes are bent downwards, backwards, and inwards. Round the mouth is -a small space, the walls of which are completed by the mandibles, and -into this space the brushes are suddenly bent back, at the same time -the mandibles and maxillae move forward to meet them. This movement may -take place as many as 180 times a minute, and it produces a current -converging in concentric curves towards the above-mentioned chamber. -The water filters out between the sides, and any particle of food is -retained by the hairs or by the mouth appendages; from time to time -the mandibles are brought together, and their stiff bristles are run -through the brushes as one’s fingers run through a beard;[11] at other -times the brushes disappear far into the mouth, and then are slowly -withdrawn, passing through the comb-like bristles on the mandibles. The -brushes are frequently swallowed, and are withdrawn in little jerks, -so that the maxillae have every opportunity of combing any nutritive -particles out of them. The whole operation is a most fascinating one to -watch. - -As far as one can judge, the currents set in motion by the action -of all these forces extend in an area equal to twice the length of -the larva, or even more. The currents are in the plane just below -the surface-film, and any organic matter lighter than water is swept -towards the mouth. In fact the larva sweeps the lower side of the -surface-film of the pond or puddle just as a careful housemaid might -sweep spiders and flies off a ceiling with a hand-brush. - -The principal food-supply of the larva consists of the spores of -fresh-water algae, diatoms, particles of _Spirogyra_, and any other -organisms which do not penetrate the surface-film. Occasionally the -larvae devour the decaying leaves of duck-weed (_Lemna_), and sometimes -they attack their dead fellows. - -[11] If you have a beard. - -Grassi found the intestine of the larva to contain protozoa, -unicellular algae, and other organic detritus. In course of time some -object too big for the larva to swallow is brought to its mouth by the -currents, but after a very short struggle this is rejected. The minuter -particles accumulate in the chamber for a certain time, and then are -swallowed by a gulp-like motion and thus pass into the oesophagus. - - [Illustration: FIG. 22.—A comparison between the various stages in the - life-history of the mosquito (_Anopheles_), on the left, and the gnat - (_Culex_), on the right. - - ANOPHELES CULEX - - _IMAGO_ - _PUPA_ - _LARVA_ - _OVA_] - - - - - CHAPTER VIII - - THE MOSQUITO (_Anopheles maculipennis_) - - PART V - - Amongst aquatic larvae, the most beautiful and delicate are those of - numerous species of gnat.—(GORING AND PRITCHARD’S _Micrographia_, - 1837.) - - -In the young larva of _Anopheles_ the head is broader and deeper than -the thorax, but in the older larvae the segments that succeed the -head have at least twice its diameter. It is a characteristic of true -flies, or Diptera, that the thorax should not exhibit that separation -into three divisions which is so usual in the less specialised -insects—such as the cockroach and this is peculiarly true of the larva -of the mosquito—at any rate, so far as its external structure goes. -The abdomen of the larva consists of nine free segments; the third, -fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh of these bear palmate hairs on the -dorsal or upper surface, something like hands with fourteen ‘fingers’ -spread out. These hairs adhere to the under layer of the surface-film -of the water, and help to maintain the animal in a horizontal position -just below that film. When the larva relaxes its hold and sinks into -the water, it not infrequently carries with it air-bubbles enclosed by -these fourteen ‘fingers.’ - -The eighth abdominal segment bears the stigmata or the openings -of the respiratory apparatus, and the ninth segment has abandoned -the flattened and square cross-section of its predecessors, and is -cylindrical and tapering. The posterior end of the body is cut off -sharply. Round the posterior opening of the alimentary canal are -four white, soft papillae, which are well supplied with tracheae and -are capable of contracting and expanding. Above these are four very -prominent hairs, two median and two lateral, and ventrally to the ninth -abdominal segment is a fan-shaped arrangement of hairs springing from -two pieces of very complicated structures. These hairs seem to act to -some extent as a rudder, and they probably serve as an accessory organ -of locomotion. Possibly they have also a sensory or tactile function, -and act, as so many posterior filaments do in insects, as antennae -‘from behind.’ - -We have referred above to the respiratory openings, and, indeed, these -are the key to the whole situation. Close these openings— as they -can be closed by floating petrol or other oil on the surface of the -water—and ‘the trick is done.’ The larvae and the pupae can no longer -breathe, and there is thus no imago to “carry on.” In _Culex_ (the -gnat), these respiratory orifices are borne on a long tube directing -dorsalwards—a tube which is larger and longer than a segment of the -body, and whose presence gives the larva the appearance of a Y with -slightly unequal limbs. These breathing-openings are of the greatest -complexity, but the outstanding fact is that these stigmata pierce -through the watery film and put the respiratory system of the larva -into communication with the atmosphere of the whole cosmos. If anything -frightens the larva, certain side-pieces and flaps fold suddenly -backwards and over the stigmata, the connexion through the surface-film -is broken, and the little larva, like a German submarine when it -sights an English battleship, darts below, frequently carrying with it -the drop of air attached to the rim of the respiratory recess which -surrounds the openings of the two stigmata. - -Not infrequently the larva ceases to lie parallel to the surface of the -water, its palmate hairs are put out of action, and then its body hangs -down into the water, but it still maintains its respiratory connexion -with the outer air through these breathing-pores. From time to time -the hairs mentioned above are brushed over by the mouth parts and -cleaned of any débris. - -The larvae, when they leave the surface-film sink by their own -weight; but they not infrequently swim actively downwards, their -swimming action being very like that of an eel. When returning -to the surface they are entirely dependent upon their powers of -swimming, being slightly heavier than water. When the tail reaches the -surface-film the larvae are at once arrested, and immediately cease -their swimming-movements. They invariably move tail forwards, and -the hairs which we have mentioned above at the posterior end of the -body undoubtedly act as ‘buffers’ or ‘fenders.’ As a rule, when they -are above, they are actively engaged in feeding; but at the bottom -they lay inert, as though feigning to be dead. Kept in a glass beaker -they are apt to lie with their respiratory apparatus attached to the -concave film, which capillary attraction draws up on the surface of the -glass. Their heads then point towards the surface of the beaker. If -forcibly kept below—say, by submerging them under a watch-glass—they -are frequently enabled to breathe by attaching the openings of their -respiratory apparatus to an air-bubble. - -The general colour of the larva is a mottled brown, darkening where the -chitin thickens. The older larvae are to some extent green, possibly -due to their food; but this green colour is not by any means confined -to the alimentary tract. After moulting, the issuing larva is a uniform -light lavender colour, which, however, very soon darkens. - -A strong wind passing over a pool where _Anopheles_ eggs, larvae, or -pupae are floating, will gradually pile them all up on the side towards -which it is blowing. The _Anopheles_ larvae undoubtedly are braver than -those of the _Culex_—that is to say, a disturbance which will send all -the _Culex_ larvae scurrying to the bottom will leave the _Anopheles_ -larvae unmoved. - -When first hatched the larvae measure somewhere about 0·7 mm. to 0·95 -mm., but when ready to pupate they have attained the length of 7 mm. -The rate of development is greatly influenced by the temperature, and -a few cold days will markedly retard the larval growth. In warm sunny -weather, larvae will pupate between the second and third week, but -larvae taken in August (if the autumn be cold) do not attain their full -growth until November. The young larvae undoubtedly die in considerable -numbers, and the act of pupating is also attended with certain and -varying dangers. Out of 834 larvae and pupae caught in Cambridgeshire, -636 were small larvae, measuring less than 4 mm.; 181 were large -larvae, measuring up to 7 mm. But only 17 pupae were taken. There are -other facts which show that the larvae under natural conditions succumb -in very considerable numbers. - -[Illustration: FIG. 23.—Side view of late pupal stage of _Anopheles -maculipennis_. _f_, The stigma opening at end of trumpet-like -projections. (From Nuttall and Shipley.)] - -When the larva is about to turn into a pupa it comes to rest, and now -the thoracic regions are more swollen than ever. Soon a dorsal slit -appears along the larval cuticle and the pupa slowly, but gradually, -emerges through this slit and leaves the larval chitinous cuticle -behind it. On first emerging, the pupa measures about 6·5 mm., the head -and thorax making up one-third of this. During the last larval stage -many of the pupal organs have been re-forming and are more or less -visible through the cuticle. The mouth parts and limbs of the third -stage—the future imago—show no relation to those of the larva. They -are there enclosed in their respective sheaths, but these are quite -independent of the larval ‘appendages.’ The respiratory trumpets, -which, as in the larva, pierce the surface-film, are ready to act as -breathing-organs. Whereas the larvae breathe through two stigmata -at the posterior end of the abdomen, the pupae breathe through two -respiratory trumpets issuing from the anterior dorsal surface, and it -is these trumpets, together with certain palmate hairs, which support -the pupae in the right position and put the respiratory organs at this -stage into communication with the outer atmosphere. During the pupa -stage _Anopheles_, like the pupa of other insects, takes no food. - -The pupa is something like a tadpole, with its tail bent under its -body and flapping up and down, instead of from side to side. The whole -pupa is enclosed in a thin semitransparent membrane, through which the -organs of the adult can readily be seen. As it grows older its colour -darkens. Until about the time when it will give rise to the fly, the -pupa floats quietly at the surface, breathing through its respiratory -trumpets. When disturbed it shows considerable activity, and it is by -no means always easy to capture by means of a pipette. At the least -sign of danger it darts below with a series of intermittent strokes -and rests at the bottom of the water. Its own buoyancy brings it back -to the surface, as, unlike the larva, it is lighter than water. Not -only has it a certain amount of air in its tracheae, but there is a -reservoir of air at the posterior end of the thorax which acts as a -very efficient float. When retreating below the surface the respiratory -trumpets usually carry down with them two minute air-bubbles. - -[Illustration: FIG. 24.—A, Side view, B, ventral view, of the pupa of -a male _Anopheles maculipennis_; C and D, the same views of the female -pupa.] - -The sex of the pupa can be determined by the lobes at the posterior -end of the tail: A and B (Fig. 24) representing the male, and C and D -the corresponding parts of the female. The duration of the pupal life -is generally three to four days, but conditions of temperature and the -state of the natural surroundings exert considerable influence upon -the rate of development. Howard has pointed out that the addition of -creosote or creosote-oil to the water in which the larvae are living -hastens the metamorphosis into pupae, and the pupa stage is passed -through in as short a time as fifteen hours instead of the normal -forty-eight hours of the warm waters of the Southern States in America. -It has also been observed that showery weather hastens the rate of -development. - -When the adult mosquito is about to emerge, a certain amount of -air is secreted under the chitinous casing of the pupa. A fine -streak containing air appears along the back, extending between the -respiratory trumpets and the base of the head. This central streak -gradually passes backwards until it reaches the seventh abdominal -segment, and then suddenly the pupa extends its abdomen so that it -floats parallel to the surface of the water instead of being under the -rest of the pupa’s body. The chitinous integument now splits along the -median dorsal line, and through the slit thus made the thorax of the -adult mosquito now protrudes. By gradually pressing its abdomen against -the pupa-case, the body of the perfect insect is slowly but gradually -raised above the surface of the water. The head is pulled backwards -and upwards, and millimetre by millimetre the mouth parts, the palps, -and antennae are withdrawn, and at first remain bent backwards beneath -the body of the insect. Gradually the bases of the wings and the -abdomen emerge, and soon the wings are freed and immediately flatten -out and begin to harden. The legs and the tip of the abdomen alone now -remain to be dealt with. At this stage the insect projects far beyond -the anterior end of the pupa encasement, and somewhat resembles an -exaggerated figurehead on a ship. The pupa-case is still filled with -air, and acts as a float to support the emerging insect. At last the -front legs are being freed, the second and third pair of legs soon -follow, and now the insect is standing on the surface of the water -raised on its tarsal joints, the tip of the abdomen being the last part -to free itself from the pupa-case. - - [Illustration: FIG. 25.—Imago of a mosquito extracting itself from the - pupa-case, which floats on the surface of the water. Magnified. (From - Guiart.)] - -The exit of the fly is naturally a very critical period in its -life-history, and in many cases it is fatal. The freeing process takes -between five and ten minutes. When undisturbed the emergent fly rests -for a time until its wings and limbs are sufficiently hardened to -enable it to fly, or at least to walk about. Sometimes the mosquito -takes its first flight straight from the pupa-case; at other times -it rests awhile before taking to the air. The young imago is pale in -colour, the thorax being brown and the abdomen transparent, with a -greenish tinge. At first the abdomen is much longer than it is later, -for, almost immediately after the mosquito’s exit from the pupa-case -its abdomen begins to contract, and from its hinder end four or five -drops of a glistening, greenish-white fluid are exuded. - -The newly born imagines generally take to flight between five and ten -minutes after they have emerged, and they at once begin to darken in -colour, and in two hours assume the normal dusky colour of the adult. -If anything hinders the insect from properly extending its limbs -immediately on issuing from the pupa-case, the parts harden and remain -distorted throughout life. - - * * * * * - -Anyone who has spent a day or two in Lille or Bruges, or other towns -in Picardy and in Southern Belgium, will understand why, as my Uncle -Toby has it, ‘Our army swore terribly in Flanders.’ The incessant and -tireless biting of mosquitos would make any army swear, even though -they were ignorant—as my Uncle Toby’s army certainly was ignorant—that -the gnats, as they called them, conveyed tertian and quartan ague. In -Europe the trouble is a summer or early autumn trouble; but our troops -are fighting in many tropical and sub-tropical countries, where the -mosquitos—like the poor—are always with them. - -That the plague can now be checked is shown by the making of the Panama -Canal; and that this check is due to British science is shown by the -work on the life-history of the malarial organism, first investigated -by Sir Ronald Ross, and later, as regards the human parasites, by -certain Italian savants. It is also due to the public health services -of one or two British medical officers of health in the East. _Their_ -methods have been applied and improved by those responsible for the -elusive channel which now at times separates North from South America. - -We have seen that the larva and the pupa hang on to the surface-film -of the water by means of certain suspensory hairs, and by the -openings of their breathing-apparatus. Anything which prevents the -breathing-tubes reaching the air ensures the death of the larva and -pupa, and then there is no issuing adult—hence the use of paraffin on -the pools or breeding-places. It, or any other oily fluid, spreads as -a thin layer over the surface of the pools and puddles and clogs the -respiratory-pores and the larvae or pupae die of suffocation. - -In Ismailia the disease has been reduced to an amazing extent, and -remarkable results have followed the use of these preventive measures -at Port Swettenham in the Federated Malay States. Within two months -of the opening of the port in 1902, 41 out of 49 of the Government -quarters were infected, and 118 out of 196 Government servants were -ill. Now, after filling up all pools and cleaning the jungle, no single -officer has suffered from malaria since July 1904, and the number of -cases amongst the children fell from 34·8 to 0·77 per cent. The only -melancholy feature about this wonderful alleviation of suffering, due -to the untiring efforts of the district surgeon, Dr. Malcolm Watson, is -that his fees for attending malarial cases dropped to zero. - -Thus, even ten years ago, a considerable degree of success had attended -the efforts of the sanitary authorities—largely at the instigation of -Sir Ronald Ross—all over the world, to diminish the mosquito-plague. -It is, of course, equally important to try to destroy the parasite -in man by means of quinine. This is, however, a matter of great -difficulty. In Africa and in the East nearly all native children -are infected with malaria, though they suffer little, and gradually -acquire a high degree of immunity. Still, they are always a source of -infection; and soldiers stationed in malarious districts should always -place their dwellings to the windward of the native settlements. - -Knowing the cause, we can now guard against malaria; mosquito-nets and -wire-protected windows and doors are a sufficient check on the access -of _Anopheles_ to man. If the mosquito and man could only be kept -permanently apart, we might hope for the disappearance of the parasite -from our fauna. In relieving man from this world-wide pest, all genuine -lovers of animals will rejoice that we are also relieving the far more -serious lesions of one of the most delicate and beautiful insects that -we know. - -It has always been a source of surprise to me that the great resources -and the very evident enthusiasm of the anti-vivisection societies have -not been turned in this direction. In the malarial parasite, we have a -most potent vivisector of the entrails of one of the most charming and -graceful of creatures, whose poetry of movement is hardly approached -and never equalled by the ladies of the front row of the ballet. A -little help, a very little help, would free these fascinating flies -from a form of trouble far worse than that the human alternative host -suffers. Yet, as far as I know, these societies and the societies for -the prevention of cruelty to animals have declined to help in any -way, and have knowingly allowed thousands of millions of animals to -perish annually by a most painful death, and have never stretched out a -helping hand to the fairy-like and fascinating mosquito. - - - - - CHAPTER IX - - THE YELLOW-FEVER MOSQUITO (_Stegomyia calopus_) - - ... et nova febrium - Terris incubuit cohors. - (HORACE.) - - -Like other branches of human activity disease has its romantic and its -unromantic side. Nobody can regard mumps or measles as romantic. On the -other hand, yellow fever calls up all the romance of slave-trading, -pirates and the Spanish Main, buccaneers, maroonings and other grisly -horrors, whose sole redeeming feature was a touch of romance. Lovers -of pirate stories—and who are not?—will always remember their graphic -description of Yellow Jack in the West Indies. - -We have probably always had disease with us since the creation of the -world—that act of ‘_impardonnable imprudence_,’ as Anatole France calls -it; but the first description of yellow fever only dates back to 1647, -when an outbreak occurred in the Barbados. Then, as now, it devastated -the shipping of the port, and was soon introduced by ships into St. -Christopher and, later, into Guadeloupe. The following year it was in -Cuba, and in 1655 in Jamaica, and it gradually spread throughout the -whole of the West Indies until a century or more later it reached the -Island of St. Thomas. - -One of the peculiarities of the disease is that it frequently -disappears from a given locality for long periods of time. For -instance, it was absent in Barbados after the first outbreak until -1690, and when it recurred it was at first not recognised as being the -same disease which devastated the islands forty-three years before. In -the eighteenth century there was another break of fifty-four years, and -similar breaks can be recorded in most of the West Indian islands. - -Besides the West Indies, it is at present endemic in Brazil and -on the west coast of Africa, and is common in Mexico. Whether the -disease arose primarily in Africa and is part of the toll the American -continent has had to pay for the slave-trade, or whether it was brought -to the west coast of Africa from the other side of the Atlantic, is not -certain. It apparently appeared as a regular disease in Brazil in the -year 1849, and from that time onwards, with the exception of one year, -has been a permanent trouble at Rio. From time to time the disease has -been carried to neighbouring parts of America, especially to the Gulf, -Central America, and the northern coast of South America. It has been -introduced more than once into Monte Video and Buenos Ayres, and has -even penetrated up the Parana as far as Asunçion. Every few years it -extends into the Southern States and has even reached Philadelphia and -Boston. With the exception of an outbreak in Leghorn in 1804, European -epidemics have been confined to Portugal, Spain, and the Balearic -Islands. - -It will have been noticed that most of these outbreaks occur on the -coast and then pass up the rivers. It is thus most probable that the -disease is one which is brought mainly by ships. It is obviously a -disease which must be guarded against by our troops fighting near the -coast in West Africa, as well as such troops as are left in the West -Indies. But, above all, it must be guarded against in relation to our -shipping fleet and our Navy, operating off the South American coasts. -The danger, now the Panama Canal is open, of introducing the disease -from America to Asia is a danger that should carefully be considered. - -Yellow fever is a disease which requires a winter temperature of at -least 68° F., for it is a mosquito-borne disease, and the yellow-fever -mosquito flourishes best at about this temperature. It can be -introduced into a new locality by the arrival of an infected mosquito, -or by the arrival of an infected human being. In the former case the -disease breaks out within a few days; in the latter at least ten or -twelve days elapse before new cases arise, for, as we shall see later, -the organism, whatever it is, that causes the fever is not capable of -passing from the mosquito until it has been in its body for ten or -twelve days. - - [Illustration: FIG. 26.—_Stegomyia fasciata._ Female, lateral view - (magnified.) Note hump-backed outline, and also the position of the - posterior pair of legs.] - -Thirty-six years ago Finlay of Havana suggested that the virus of -yellow fever was inoculated by mosquitos; but it was not until the -publication of the discoveries by Sir Ronald Ross and others, that -malaria is transferred by _Anopheles_, that a thorough investigation -of yellow fever was made. In the last year of the last century -an American Commission, consisting of Drs. Walter Reed, Carroll, -Agramonte, and Lazear, investigated the whole subject, and, taking -extraordinary risks, were able to prove that the infection was not -conveyed by contact or through the air, or from bedding or clothes -soiled by the dejecta of yellow-fever patients, but by a mosquito of -the genus _Stegomyia_. Whatever the virus is, it is invisible, even -under the highest powers of the microscope. It can be filtered through -a Berkefeld filter. It is destroyed by heating to 55° C. If the blood -of a yellow fever patient, during the first three days, be inoculated -into a healthy man he gets yellow fever, and it is only during the -first three days that the blood is infective. On the other hand, the -mosquito is incapable of transferring the disease until the unknown -organism has been in its own body for at least ten or twelve days. - -The mosquito in question belongs to the species _Stegomyia calopus_ -(Blanchard), or, as it is more often called in English textbooks, -_Stegomyia fasciata_ (Fabricius). The genus _Stegomyia_ differs from -other _Culicidae_ in having a dark grey or black colour, whilst the -_Culicidae_ are as a rule browner. _Stegomyia_ also has silver-white -spots and silver glistening scales, especially on the back of the legs -and on the abdomen. The grown-up mosquito is comparatively small, and -very elegant. Its length is some 3 to 4 mm., but if the mouth parts be -added is some 6 to 6½ mm. long. As is usual, the male is smaller and -feebler than the female. When settled—as, for instance, whilst sucking -the blood of its host—it rests upon its first four legs only, the two -hindmost being stretched out abaft like pennants waving in the air; but -in general it has the hump-backed appearance of _Culex_ and not the -straight outline of _Anopheles_. The colour is greyish black, modified -by numerous white spots and rings. There is a white rim round the eyes, -and a very characteristic lyre-like pattern on the dorsal surface of -the thorax. The structure of the mouth parts is much the same as that -of any other _Culicidae_. The antennae have fourteen joints, the last -two of which in the male are longer than the others. As is again usual, -the antennae of the male have long brush-like hairs, organs by means of -which they find the female. The legs are banded alternately with white -and black rings. It is this character, indeed, which has given this -mosquito the name of the ‘tiger-gnat.’ The wings are very iridescent. - - [Illustration: FIG. 27.—_Stegomyia fasciata._ Above, the larvae; - below, the eggs. Both natural size.] - -The pupa of _Stegomyia_ is darker and blacker than that of _Culex_, -and, seen from the side, the head and the thorax are somewhat more -triangular than the same parts in _Culex_. As the pupa grows older it -grows darker. The length of the larva is 4 to 6 mm., somewhat larger -than that of the gnat. But, like that, it has a respiratory-tube -stretching out from the last segment of the abdomen, almost at right -angles to the rest of the body. This respiratory-tube is much shorter -than that of _Culex_, but is long enough to enable the larva to hang -obliquely down into the water. The eggs are very large. They are -covered by a mass of small ‘cells’ containing air, and they never tend -to form a conglomerate mass like those of _Culex_, but are laid singly, -and remain isolated until the larvae hatch. After floating a certain -time they usually sink to the bottom of the water. Their length may -be about a millimetre, and their colour is almost black. When the egg -hatches, the anterior third of the shell splits off and the larva at -once emerges. - - [Illustration: FIG. 28.—Larva of _Stegomyia fasciata_ breathing on the - surface of the water. Highly magnified.] - -As is so often the case with mosquitos, it is the female alone -which bites. The male nourishes itself on plant-juices, saps, and -so on—especially they like sugary secretions—and in the absence of -blood the female is reduced to a similar diet. Hence _Stegomyia_ is -comparatively common in dwellings where sweetstuffs are—bakeries, -sugar-refineries, and so on. These mosquitos are, like the cockroach, -the fly, and the bed-bug, inhabitants of human dwellings. They are -indeed domesticated, and are always to be found in the neighbourhood of -human houses or buildings or ships, and are very rarely indeed found -far away from the sphere of man’s activities. - - [Illustration: FIG. 29.—Egg of _Stegomyia fasciata_ (highly - magnified). Notice the air-‘cells.’] - -They are very apt to bite one in the neck, creeping along the darker -parts of the clothing until an unprotected region of the body is -reached. Unless one has very thick socks they frequently bite the -ankle, and they are as tireless in their pesterings as ever Mrs. -Pardiggle was—no sooner are they driven away than they return to the -attack. The bite is painful, and in many people raises a considerable -swelling. - -The _Stegomyia_ bite not only during the night, but also during the -day. According to R. O. and O. Neumann—in Brazil, at any rate—they are -capable of biting not only during the twilight, but at any times. The -bite lasts twenty to thirty seconds, after which the mosquito rests -a bit, waving its third pair of legs in the sun. After this rest she -flies away to some sheltered spot, and whilst blood is being digested -the mosquito takes nothing but water—a very proper dietetic measure. -After three or four days the female is ready for another meal. - -In the absence of man these mosquitos will suck blood from other -animals, and in confinement they are generally fed on rats or canaries, -and they will even suck up a drop of blood presented on a piece of -cotton-wool. - -If the female mosquito has been fertilised before the sucking of blood -she will commence egg-laying two or three days later, and two or three -days later again the larva will emerge. The larval stage lasts from -nine to twelve days, and the pupa stage three to four, so that the -whole metamorphosis takes from sixteen to twenty-two days. Hence, -during warm weather, many generations succeed each other, but one must -have a temperature of at least 20° to 27° C. Below that temperature -the processes tend to slow down, and under a temperature near -freezing-point the regular development is definitely interrupted. But -the interruption is only a suspense, and living activities are resumed -should the temperature rise again. - -It is a disputed point whether these mosquitos must have a meal of -blood before they can lay eggs, and on this point the evidence is not -yet sufficient to make a dogmatic statement. These mosquitos are very -indifferent where their eggs are laid. The smallest collection of water -in an empty sardine-tin, a broken tumbler, a puddle in the street, a -gutter-pipe, is good enough for _Stegomyia calopus_. She will even lay -her eggs on moist cotton-wool. - -Although _Stegomyia_ bites freely during the day-time, it, as a rule, -avoids the light and seeks some dark shelter. Contrary to the habits -of _Anopheles_, it prefers a light ground to rest upon. The larvae -live on algae, vegetable-matter, or plant-detritus, or, in captivity, -on white bread or Indian corn. They can remain for a considerable time -without food, and this without materially diminishing the rate of their -development. _Stegomyia_ breeds well in ships, and is occasionally -found in one part only of the ship—such as the engine-room or cook’s -galley, where the conditions seem to be most favourable to its -development. Thus it comes about that at times certain quarters of a -ship provide the greatest percentage of yellow-fever cases. - - - - - CHAPTER X - - THE BISCUIT-‘WEEVIL’[12] (_Anobium paniceum_) - - ‘Let us be merry,’ said Mr. Pecksniff. Here he took a captain’s - biscuit. ‘It is a poor heart that never rejoices; your hearts are not - poor. No!’—(DICKENS, _Martin Chuzzlewit_.) - -The first things to notice about the biscuit-‘weevil,’ so familiar -to readers of Marryat’s novels, is that it is not a weevil at all, -and that it attacks a great many other comestibles besides biscuits. -The so-called biscuit-‘weevil’ is in truth an _Anobium_—_Anobium -paniceum_—a member of the family _PTINIDAE_ and is closely allied -to _A. striatum_, which makes the little round holes in worm-eaten -furniture, so cleverly imitated by the second-hand furniture-dealers. -Another species of _Anobium_ (recently re-christened _Xestobium -tessellatum_), a somewhat larger insect, is destructive in churches, -libraries, and old houses. Their mysterious tappings (which are really -efforts to attract the other sex—mere flirtations) are the cause of -much superstitious dread in the nervous, and this species is known as -the ‘greater death-watch.’ - -[12] Modern systematists now call the biscuit-‘weevil’ _Sitodrepa -panicea_. - - [Illustration: FIG. 30.—Biscuit-‘weevil,’ _Anobium paniceum_. (From - David Sharp, _The Cambridge Natural History_, vol. vi.)] - -But to return to the biscuit-‘weevil.’ The mature insect is about a -quarter of an inch long, and lives at large; it is the larva which -burrows into and attacks the dried biscuit—the ‘hard-tack’ of the -Navy. Less of a woodborer than its allies, it nevertheless attacks -almost any vegetable substance; and Butler tells us that ‘rhubarb-root, -ginger, wafers, and even so unlikely a substance as Cayenne pepper -have been greedily devoured by it.’ Several generations have been -known to flourish on a diet of opium, and it has been found in tablets -of compressed meat. Vegetable matter, even in an altered state—such -as paper—affords it an ample meal; and in one case the larva of -an _Anobium paniceum_ bored steadily in a straight line through -twenty-seven folio volumes in a public library, and so straight was the -tunnel that a string could be passed through it from end to end. In -one of our libraries at Cambridge some Arabic manuscripts were almost -entirely destroyed by the larvae, which do not hesitate to browse on -drawings and paintings and the dried paper of herbaria. - - [Illustration: FIG. 31.—Early stages of _Anobium paniceum_. A, Eggs, - variable in form; B, larva; C, pupa; D, asymmetrical processes - terminating body of pupa. This larva is probably the ‘book-worm’ of - librarians. (From David Sharp, _The Cambridge Natural History_, vol. - vi.)] - -The larva of this beetle is in truth a book-worm. Its interest for us -in the present series is, however, the disastrous infestation of ships’ -biscuits, which frequently is so severe that the sailors ‘hard-tack’ -is rendered uneatable. Heating, of course, kills it; but the biscuits -are still uneatable. The dead larvae are as unpalatable as the living. -The contrivance of biscuit-tins since Marryat’s time has done much -to lessen the evils. Tradition has it that a great firm and a great -fortune had their foundations laid, during the first half of the last -century, by the accidental contiguity of a baker’s shop and that of a -tinsmith. - - - - - CHAPTER XI - - THE FIG-MOTH[13] (_Ephestia cautella_) - - All’ amico mondagli il fico. - (_Italian Proverb._) - - -The extension of the War to Turkey and Asia Minor has drawn attention -to the existence of certain insects whose larvae exercise a very -deleterious effect on valuable food-supplies in the Near East. The -inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey, without knowing it, have from time -immemorial adopted the advice of Captain Cuttle: ‘Train up a fig-tree -in the way it should go, and when you are old sit under the shade on -it. Overhaul the—— Well,’ said the Captain, ‘on second thoughts, I -ain’t quite certain where that’s to be found, but when found, make a -note of.’ - -[13] The figures illustrating this article are taken from _The Report -of the Fig-moth in Smyrna_, Bul. 104. Bureau of Entomology, Washington, -1911. - -Asia Minor may indeed be described as the fig-ground of the East, and -anything that interferes with the fig as a food is likely to interfere -with the well-being of our troops in Egypt and the Near East. In -‘The Minor Horrors of War,’ I described a species of moth, _Ephestia -kühniella_, a member of the family Pyralidae, which infests and -destroys Army biscuits; but this other species, _E. cautella_, which -attacks figs, is even more troublesome than the one described in the -above-mentioned book.[14] - -[14] It might be well to repeat the fact that the genus _Ephestia_ -belongs to the family _PYRALIDAE_, which is by most authorities -included in the _Microlepidoptera_. The Speaker’s sneer at the -entomologists who work at this group (see his letter in _The Times_ -of February 2, 1916) is hardly worthy of one of the chief trustees of -the British Museum. As a chief trustee, he must have been aware of the -exhibit of the Microlepidoptera, _E. kühniella_, and its devastating -action on the biscuits supplied to our soldiers by the War Office, -which has for many months occupied a prominent position in the middle -of the central hall of the Natural History Museum at South Kensington. -This exhibit showed how closely the study of the Microlepidoptera is -associated with the food-supply of our soldiers in many parts of the -world. - - [Illustration: FIG. 32.—Typical Smyrna fig-orchard in Meander Valley, - Asia Minor, whence come the best figs for export.] - - [Illustration: FIG. 33.—The fig-moth (_Ephestia cautella_). _a_, Moth - with expanded wings; _b_, denuded wings showing venation; _c_, larva, - full grown, dorsal view; _d_, two egg masses, _a_, _b_, _c_, About - four times natural size; _d_, more enlarged.] - -Whoever has attentively eaten dried figs must from time to time have -become aware that there is something very defective in their flavour, -and on close inspection little clusters of débris will be observed -on the outside of the dried fruit—the dejecta of the larva burrowing -within—and numerous round holes can be detected through which the -larvae have made their entrance. If cut open and carefully examined, -one or two small white grubs may be found, which give the fig a -singularly sour-bitter and most unpleasant taste. This is the larva -of the moth, _Ephestia cautella_ which has for the last four or five -years been attracting much attention in the Levant market. From 15 to -50 per cent. of the figs exported from Smyrna, the great centre of the -fig-trade, are infected with this ‘worm,’ and active steps were being -taken before the War spread to the Near East to check its ravages. The -moth itself is very like _E. kühniella_, but readily distinguished by -an entomologist. Originally, it seems to have come from Asiatic Turkey, -but by the aid of commerce it has been distributed in a broad belt -all round the world within certain limits of temperature. Wide as its -distribution now is, it is equally catholic in its tastes. Perhaps it -does as much harm to the chocolate trade as to any other, attacking -the cacao-bean as well as the prepared article; all sorts of nuts are -infested. At one time it was thought that the oil of the nuts was the -attraction, but the larvae flourish just as well on rice and bran, on -dried apples, dried insects, maize, and a great variety of other more -or less nutritive substances. - -But to return to the figs. So serious was the trouble felt to be in -the American fig-market that, in 1910, the authorities at Washington -sent Mr. E. G. Smyth of the Bureau of Entomology to investigate the -insect in Asia Minor, where the figs come from, and from his report the -following account is taken:— - - The manner of the fig-harvest is as follows: During August the - figs are ripening on the trees, and are gradually dropping off to - be collected from the ground and laid on strips of reeds, called - ‘serghi,’ a yard broad; and here for two to five days they dry in - the sun. When dried, they are packed in goats’-hair bags or woven - willow baskets, and carried by horse or by camel to the fig-depots - in the neighbouring villages. Here they are collected from the - whole district, mixed together, and re-sacked for transmission by - railroad to the coast. At Smyrna they are graded and prepared for - the market: the better kind being either ‘layered’ or ‘pulled,’ - whilst the inferior fruits are strung on strings or exported in the - form of a mashed cake to make the ‘strawberry’ jam of the Western - breakfast-table. - - [Illustration: FIG. 34.—‘Serghi’ of reeds laid in long rows, used in - large orchards. Over these the moths congregate by thousands at night.] - -Mr. Smyth’s object was first to find out at what stage the figs become -infected by the moth, and then if possible to suggest preventive -or remedial measures. He minutely investigated every stage in the -preservation of figs, from the ripe fruit on the tree to the preserved -figs in the hold on the steamer bound for New York, and the conclusion -he came to is this: With very rare exceptions the eggs are never -laid on the fruit whilst on the tree. The first and by far the most -important infection is when the figs are gathered and exposed on the -reed ‘serghi.’ Then about seven in the evening the moths begin to -appear, and steadily increase in number as the evening wears on. The -actual deposition of the ova cannot be observed, for the moths get -down amongst the reeds and lay their eggs on the under surface of the -fruit—usually in some crack or abrasion—so that the newly hatched larva -can more easily make an entrance into the fig. From some ‘counts’ made -at Tchifte Kaive it appears that after an exposure of one night 29 per -cent. of figs were infested, after two nights 38·5 per cent., and after -three nights 44·5 per cent. - - [Illustration: FIG. 35.—Figs packed by string method (reduced).] - -A second and serious source of infection is at the village depots. -Before the figs arrive, there seem to be no specimens of the _Ephestia_ -in the buildings; but with their arrival the moth appears, and so -favourable is the shelter from the heat and the wind, and so abundant -is the supply of figs as sack after sack is emptied on to the floor, -that soon the moth is more abundant in the depots than amongst the -‘serghi,’ and the wonder is that a single fig escapes infestation. -Fortunately, the time spent in the depots is short, often only a night; -were it much longer, the whole crop would suffer. On their way down to -the coast again there is little or no risk of the moth, but arriving -at Smyrna we pick up the insect again in the ‘khans,’ where the figs -are prepared for export, but in the larval form. Here, in August and -September, little trace of the insect is seen, the larvae are then too -small to emerge and pupate; but by October many full-grown larvae -may be found on the fig-heaps or crawling up the walls; a few pupate -inside the figs, and these probably produce the few imagines found in -the ‘khans,’ at the port of shipping. The unpleasantness of the larvae -crawling all about the ship greatly detracts from the pleasure of a -voyage on a vessel laden with Smyrna figs. - - [Illustration: FIG. 36.—Pile of refuse-figs in a Smyrna ‘khan:’ On the - wall, above these figs, fig-moth larvae congregate in large numbers.] - -With regard to preventive measures, there seems in many parts of Asia -Minor to be two crops of figs—one in May and June and one later. The -former produces a large, watery fig, unfit for sale. It is left to -rot on the ground, but it serves as food for the larvae which will -produce the myriad swarms of moths in the early autumn. Obviously -these worthless figs should be destroyed as completely as possible. -Equally obvious are the suggestions that the figs should be covered at -night with some cheap covering whilst on the ‘serghi,’ and screened -from the moth whilst in the depots, and their sojourn there should be -as short as possible. Measures for destroying the larvae in the fig -usually take the form of heat—either hot air, hot water, or steam. -Each is effective, and each has certain advantages and disadvantages; -still, the more progressive merchants of Smyrna were, before the War, -experimenting trying to find the best means of destroying the larvae, -and in time a uniform system will probably emerge. - - - - - CHAPTER XII - - THE STABLE-FLY (_Stomoxys_) - - Fly! Thy brisk unmeaning buzz - Would have roused the man of Uz; - And, besides thy buzzing, I - Fancy thou’rt a stinging-fly. - Fly—who’rt peering, I am certain, - At me now from yonder curtain: - Busy, curious, thirsty fly - (As thou’rt clept, I well know why)— - Cease, if only for a single - Hour, to make my being tingle! - Flee to some loved haunt of thine; - To the valleys where the kine, - Udder-deep in grasses cool, - Or the rushy margined pool, - Strive to lash thy murmurous kin - (Vainly) from their dappled skin! - (CALVERLEY; _The Poet and the Fly_.) - - -The common names for common insects in English are confusing. Not -only are the same insects frequently known by different names on -different sides of the Atlantic, but in many cases quite different -insects—insects even belonging to different genera—are connoted -by the same common name. In this respect matters are different in -Germany: partly, perhaps, because the Germans on the whole are more -scientifically inclined than we are, but partly, I suspect, because the -German language lends itself more easily to express in one word—however -long—the characteristics of any given insect. - - [Illustration: FIG. 37.—The Stable-fly (_Stomoxys calcitrans_).] - - [Illustration: FIG. 38.—_Stomoxys calcitrans_ × 5. Left antenna right - × 1, resting position. (From Graham Smith.)] - -The genus _Stomoxys_ is generally called in Great Britain the -‘stable-fly,’ but there are other ‘stable-flies.’ One of the commonest -species of the genus is _S. calcitrans_, a two-winged muscid fly, not -at all unlike the common domestic fly, _Musca domestica_; but there -are one or two points which readily distinguish it from the commoner -insect. To begin with: it has a hard, firm, chitinous, piercing -proboscis, which when at rest stretches forward in front of the head, -and when in action is pressed down at right angles to the longitudinal -axis of the body; then, again, when resting, its wings diverge; those -of the house-fly approximate. Like other flies, the _Stomoxys_ varies -somewhat in length, between 5·5-7 mm. The thorax has on its back four -longitudinal, dark stripes, broken by a transverse suture; and, as -the accompanying figure shows, the third of the great, long veins -which traverse the wing is much more slightly bent than is the case -in _Musca domestica_. Further, whereas the hinder edge of the eye in -the house-fly is straight that of the stable-fly is concave, and the -antennae bear hairs on the upper side only and not above and below as -they do in the domestic fly. - -As a biting-fly and a blood-sucking fly, the habits of _Stomoxys_ -naturally differ from those of _Musca domestica_; but, like the latter, -its distribution is almost world-wide. It is found in all temperate -and tropical countries, and extends as far north as Lapland. But it is -perhaps most abundant (or shall we say it has been most observed?) in -temperate climates and during the summer months. - - [Illustration: FIG. 39.—Wing of _Musca domestica_ above, and of - _Stomoxys calcitrans_ below.] - -In any farm or country house large numbers of _Stomoxys calcitrans_ are -found in and about the cowsheds and stables, and in warm weather the -same is true wherever cattle are grazing in the field. Later in the -year, at the beginning of autumn, they are frequently found indoors, -and in some ‘fly counts’ they have furnished quite 50 per cent. of the -flies of a country house, the remaining 50 per cent. being made up -of many other species and genera. When resting on a vertical surface -_Stomoxys_ generally has its head pointing upwards, whereas, as a rule, -the house-fly rests upside down. The adult fly feeds upon any decaying -matter; but whenever it can, it sucks the blood of vertebrates, and -at times is a real nuisance to animals as well as human beings. So -voracious are they that should a well-fed one be injured, the others -immediately attack it and suck up every drop of blood which it had -secured for its own food. - - [Illustration: FIG. 40.—Side view of head of _Stomoxys calcitrans_. A, - Proboscis in resting position; B, proboscis extended. (After Graham - Smith.)] - -It has often been disputed whether a meal of blood is essential to the -female mosquito before oviposition, but it seems perfectly clear that -the female _Stomoxys_ can produce fertilised eggs without having had a -meal of blood. - -The female lays a number of white, banana-shaped eggs a few inches -below the surface of any decaying organic matter; fermenting grass from -the lawn, decaying garden stuff, stable manure—each forms a favourable -nidus. The eggs are laid in a heap like those of the house-fly, each -heap containing from fifty to seventy. The egg is 1 mm. in length and -has a grooved side, through the thicker end of which the larva escapes -when the egg-shell splits. - - [Illustration: FIG. 41.—_Stomoxys calcitrans._ Eggs. (After Newstead.)] - -The issuing larva is almost transparent. It not only has no head, -but the anterior end dwindles almost to a point. When fully grown -it attains a length of 11 mm., and the larval stage usually lasts -from two to three weeks; but development may be retarded by adverse -circumstances up to eleven or twelve weeks, and in such cases the -full-grown larvae are often stunted in size. In these circumstances -the pupae they produce are markedly smaller than those which have -followed a more normal course of development. As is true of the egg -and of the larva, the pupa resembles the pupa of the house-fly, being -barrel-shaped and of a chestnut-brown colour; it is 5 to 5·5 mm. in -length. The pupa stage lasts from nine to thirteen days, but this -period is prolonged by cold. - - [Illustration: FIG. 42.—Acephalous larva of _Stomoxys calcitrans_. - (After Newstead.)] - -On emerging from the pupa-case the insect has to push its way to the -surface of the rotting vegetation in which it has been produced. -This it does partly by the alternate inflation and deflation of the -so-called ‘frontal sac,’ and by actively pushing forward the body by -means of its legs. Once on the surface the insect begins to clean -itself, pumps air into its body, forces it along the tracheae in -the wings, which expand and ultimately harden. In the processes of -unfolding they are aided by the hind legs. For a time the insect is -immobile, gradually stiffening; but when the integument has hardened it -flies off to explore the outer world. Under normal conditions the whole -life-cycle varies from twenty-seven to thirty-seven days. - -The chief interest of _Stomoxys_ to the public, rests upon the fact -that it is a very potent carrier of disease. There are certain forms -of _Trypanosoma_ which, under experimental conditions, are undoubtedly -transferred by this species. But opinion is still unsettled as -to whether the transference of these protozoa occurs in nature. -The _Surra_ diseases of horses and camels is, according to some -authorities, transferred by _Stomoxys_, and so is the _Surra_ disease -of cattle; and there are others, all fully set forth in Mr. Hindle’s -work on ‘Flies and Disease.’ - - [Illustration: FIG. 43.—Coarctate pupa of _Stomoxys calcitrans_. - (After Newstead.)] - -Certain thread-worms—for instance, _Filaria labiato-papillosa_—which -occur in the peritoneal cavity, and sometimes in the eyes of cattle -and deer in India, are undoubtedly conveyed by _Stomoxys calcitrans_. -The superficial vessels of the cattle swarm with the larvae of these -thread-worms, which readily pass through the proboscis of the insect -into its stomach. They then wriggle through the walls of the stomach -and make their way into the thoracic muscles; here they undergo a -‘rest-cure,’ and after a time they are readily transferred to a new and -possibly uninfected host. - -But by far the worst infection which is attributed to this fly is acute -epidemic poliomyelitis, or infantile paralysis. That this disease -occurs in epidemics has been known—especially in Scandinavia—for some -time; and eight years ago it attracted serious attention in North -America and in our country. In 1907 there were many local outbreaks in -the United States and Canada, and it is thought that the infection was -first introduced from Scandinavia along the Atlantic coast, and later, -inland, as far as the State of Minnesota, by the numerous Scandinavian -immigrants that settle there. - -The disease is one of those which are apparently due to a protozoon too -small to be visible under the highest power of the microscope, and so -small as to be able to pass through a Berkefeld filter. It can readily -be artificially transmitted to monkeys. It is thought that the disease -is by no means transmitted only by means of the biting _Stomoxys_, and -that it may be directly transmitted from one person to another without -the aid of any intermediate host. But there seems little doubt that it -can be, and is, transmitted by _Stomoxys_, and therefore it is of the -highest importance to reduce the number of these insects. - -The most efficient way of controlling this pest is to destroy or put -out of action its breeding-places. All decaying vegetable matter should -be either removed or burnt or buried, or covered with some agent which -will prevent the larvae living. In fact, the methods that have been -advocated for the common house-fly are applicable to _Stomoxys_. If -stable manure were carefully removed, from May to October, at least -every seven days, the number of flies would be materially reduced. -Where this is impracticable, manure-heaps should be covered with -some insecticide, so as to destroy the eggs and larvae. Experiments -are still being made with the view of finding a substance capable -of killing the eggs, larvae, and pupae, which will be at once cheap -and unharmful to the fertilising value of the manure. The American -experts recommend borax or colemanite (crude calcium borate), calcined, -powdered, and applied by a flour-dredger. The proportions which seem -most effective are 0·62 lb. of borax and 0·75 lb. of colemanite to -10 cubic feet, or 8 bushels of manure. Two or three gallons of water -should then be sprinkled over the manure-heap. - - - - - CHAPTER XIII - - RATS[15] (_Mus_ or _Epimys_) - - Now, Muse, let’s sing of rats! - (GRAINGER.) - - -The overwhelming majority of rats fall under two species: (i) _Mus -rattus_, the black rat, and (ii) _Mus decumanus_, the brown rat. The -original home of both species is, according to Dr. Blandford, Mongolia; -but the date of their first appearance in our islands is a matter of -some uncertainty. According to Helm, _M. rattus_ passed into Europe -at the time of the _Völkerwanderung_, and doubtless accompanied the -migrating Asiatic hordes on their journeys westward. The name rat -appears in early High-Dutch glossaries, it is mentioned by Albertus -Magnus, and occurs in early Anglo-Saxon writings in England. This -evidence is, however, not conclusive that in those times the rat had -entered Great Britain; indeed, according to Bell,[16] the black rat -was not known here until before the middle of the sixteenth century: -at least, he says, no author more ancient than that period has -described, or even alluded to, it as being in Great Britain, Gesner -being the first to do so. Jenyns, in his ‘Manual of British Vertebrate -Animals,’[17] describes _M. rattus_ as ‘truly indigenous’; but this is -in comparison with the brown rat, whose comparatively recently arrival -he chronicles. _M. rattus_ is said to have been common on the continent -of Europe in the thirteenth century. - -[15] The modern systematist now calls the black rat _Epimys rattus_, -and distinguishes two varieties—_E. rattus alexandrinus_ and _E. rattus -rattus_; the brown rat is now _E. norvegicus_. - -[16] _A History of British Quadrupeds_, 2nd ed. London, 1874. - -[17] London, 1833. - - [Illustration: FIG. 44.—_Mus rattus._ (From Pennant.)] - -_M. rattus_ has, as a rule, greyish-black fur above, ash-coloured -below, with a tail a little longer than the body and head. It is -smaller and more elegantly built than the brown rat; its snout is -longer and more slender, and the long, thin, scaly tail is about eight -or nine inches in length. The British forms average in length seven -inches from the tip of the nose to the origin of the tail. Although -known as the black rat, its bluish, or greyish-black colour is, both in -the East and in Northern America, frequently replaced by brown on the -upper surface, and by white fur on the lower, or by a yellowish-brown -rufous colour. The ears, feet, and tail are black. When kept as -pets—and they frequently are—white and piebald varieties are often -bred. The ears are larger in proportion than in _M. decumanus_, the -rings of scales on the tail better marked, and spines in the fur are -not uncommon. - -The black rat, or Old-English rat, begins to breed under the age of -one year, and goes with young six weeks; it breeds frequently during -the year, but does not commence in Bombay, according to the Plague -Commission, until it has attained the weight of at least 70 grammes. -In India they breed all the year round. In Britain they produce six -to eleven young at a time; in India the average is 5·2; the largest -number found by the Plague Commission having been nine. In Bombay it -is noteworthy that in both species the percentage of young rats to -the total rat population is greater during the warmer months—from June -to October—than at other times of the year. It is also noteworthy that -the fall in fertility begins before the onset of the plague epizootic, -though, later, it roughly coincides with it. In Britain they increase -so fast as to overstock their abode, and thus they are forced, from -deficiency of food, to devour one another, and this alone, Pennant -thinks, ‘prevents even the human race from becoming a prey to them, not -but there are instances of their gnawing the extremities of infants in -their sleep.’ - - [Illustration: FIG. 45.—Head of _Mus rattus_. (From Flower and - Lyddeker.)] - -The black rat is catholic as to its diet, omnivorous, and it devours -every kind of human food. It is more domesticated than its congener, -more devoted to human habitations, and it does immense damage to stored -grain, seeds, and cereals. It is a better climber than _M. decumanus_, -which accounts for its being _par excellence_ the ship-rat, since it -can climb hawsers and more readily ‘comes on board.’ It makes its way -up to the higher rooms of the tenement houses in Indian cities, where -it nests and breeds undisturbed by the human inhabitants. - - Day by day we passed them— - Met them unaware, - Shambling through the lobbies, - Squatting on the stair. - - Not a rat among them - Moved to give us place, - Staring with its cruel eye - And its aged face. - (F. LANGRIDGE.) - -Pennant[18] draws attention to the harm the black rat causes by gnawing -and devouring not only edibles, but paper, cloth, water-pipes, and even -furniture. In England it makes a lodge—either for the day’s residence -or a nest for its young—near a chimney, and ‘improves the warmth by -forming in it a magazine of wool, bits of cloth, hay, or straw.’ In -the East it nests in the indescribable rubbish and ‘unconsidered -trifles’ the natives accumulate in their rooms, and is seldom, if ever, -interfered with. - -[18] _British Zoology._ London, 1812. - -Its climbing-habits enable it to ascend trees, and in India it -frequently nests among the branches. In some tropical islands _M. -rattus_ lives exclusively in the crowns of coco-nut palms, feeding -almost entirely on their fruit. - -Contrary to the opinion of Blandford, Oldfield Thomas thinks that the -black rat originally came from India, and thence spread all over the -world, exterminating the indigenous rats of other countries, only to -be exterminated later by the arrival of the stronger _M. decumanus_. -At the present time the last-named species is not yet established in -some countries—for instance, in those of western South America. On that -continent, _M. alexandrinus_, a tropical variety of _M. rattus_, is -waging war on the less highly organised native rice-rats (_Sigmodon_). -_M. alexandrinus_ has a grey or rufous back, and a white belly. - -_M. rattus_ has a milder, more amenable, and tameable character -than _M. decumanus_, and the white, or pied varieties, so dear to -schoolboys, are of this species. It is cleanly in its habits, and the -skin is kept in excellent order. Like other rats, it holds its food in -its hands whilst eating, and it drinks by lapping. - -Although the black rat is tending to be driven out by the brown rat, -it still lingers on in some warehouses in London, at Yarmouth, in -Sutherlandshire, I believe in Lundy Island, and I have been told it -occurred not so very long ago on the island in the Serpentine. It -doubtless occurs in many other places. - -_Mus decumanus_, the so-called brown rat, undoubtedly comes from -Central Asia; and at the present time there is a rat in China described -under the name _M. humiliatus_, which is so little distinguishable from -the brown rat that it is thought to be the parent form. - -The migration westward of the brown rat certainly took place much later -than that of _M. rattus_. Its first appearance is difficult to date. -Undoubtedly large hordes of them crossed the Volga in the year 1727, -and continued their journey towards Central Europe. The following year, -according to Pennant, brown rats, appeared in England—Jenyns says not -till 1730—and almost certainly they came in ships, for on its journey -overland it only reached Paris about the year 1750. Reaching England -about the year of the second George’s accession, and but thirteen years -after the first of the House of Hanover succeeded to the throne, it was -called—probably by the adherents of the Stuart cause—the Hanoverian -rat. It was also called the Norwegian rat—possibly from the mistaken -idea that it reached these islands from that country. It has now passed -to the northern half of the New World, where it is gradually driving -out many of its weaker brethren. Its numbers are, however, kept within -certain limits by wolves, lynxes, raccoons, coyotes, opossums, and -other carnivora, and especially by the skunks, which enter barns and -out-houses in search of it. - -Until the discovery of America, the rat and mouse were unknown in the -New World, and the first rats who ever saw it are said to have been -introduced in a ship from Antwerp.[19] - -The brown rat is of a greyish-brown colour, tinged with yellow and -white beneath. The tail is not so long as the body. It is a larger rat -than _M. rattus_, has shorter ears, a more powerful skull, and ten to -twelve mammae. Its ears, feet, and tail are flesh-coloured. Like _M. -rattus_, colour varieties occur often: the melanistic variety, not -uncommon in Ireland, being sometimes mistaken for the black rat. It -is a larger animal than its congener, more heavily built, with a more -powerful head, and blunter jaws. The head and body measure some eight -to nine inches, but the tail, as a rule, does not surpass the length of -the body alone. Its weight averages about nine ounces. It is extremely -fierce and extremely cunning, and in the struggle for existence with -allied species has hitherto been consistently successful in the fight. - -[19] Ovalle’s ‘History of Chili,’ in _Churchill’s Voyages_, vol. iii, -p. 45. - -_Mus decumanus_ is very prolific, and produces several litters a year, -each averaging eight to ten in number, but twelve or even fourteen -young are not very uncommonly born at one time. It begins breeding -young—a half-grown female producing a litter of three or four; but -in Bombay the sexes do not breed until they have attained at least a -weight of 100 grammes. The young are naked, i.e. without hairs, and -of a beautiful pink colour. They are blind, and their ears are gummed -down over the auditory meatus. They are very weak and helpless, and -need that maternal care, which, to do the female rat justice, is never -withheld. - - [Illustration: FIG. 46.—_Mus decumanus._ (From Pennant.)] - -_M. decumanus_ is less attached to the dwellings of man than _M. -rattus_; still, it does live in houses, though, owing to a lack of -climbing power, it is never found above the third floor. It is largely -a burrowing animal, and makes its nests in its burrows. _M. rattus_ can -also burrow, but not so readily, and it nests not in the burrow, but in -some obscure corner. A curious instance of the nesting habits of this -species was found during the rebuilding of my ‘lodgings’ in 1911. In -searching under the boards of the floor of the rooms of our Foundress -the Lady Margaret, Mother of Henry VII, now the drawing-room, the -workmen found the mummified remains of four rats, which had taken to -themselves coverings or shrouds; and upon investigation these proved to -consist of a vellum deed relating to the College, some paper documents -relating to Thomas Thompson, who was Master of the College from 1510 to -1517, and some fragments of printed matter which turned out to be part -of an early Virgil; four leaves of a Horace; two leaves of a primer of -Wynkyn de Worde; and finally a leaf of a work by Caxton. In addition, -four playing-cards of the sixteenth century were found. - -The brown rat frequents barns, granaries, stables, slaughter-houses, -rivers, ponds, ditches, drains, gullies, and sewers—it is, in fact, -sometimes called the sewer-rat. It is less particular in its food than -the black rat, which is more usually found in grain-stores. Although in -Bombay the relative numbers of _M. rattus_ and _M. decumanus_ caught -was as seven is to three, in open spaces, gardens, &c., the latter -was much the commoner. Yet the report of the Plague Commission states -that the authors ‘do not think it an exaggeration to state that every -inhabited building in Bombay City and Island, not excepting even the -better-class bungalows, shelters its colony of _M. rattus_.’ - - [Illustration: FIG. 47.—Head of _Mus decumanus_. (From Flower and - Lyddeker.)] - -Both species readily take to water, though _M. rattus_, being the -better climber, more readily gets on shipboard. They will swim rivers -and arms of the sea. The rats which infest the London Zoological -Gardens are said to swim nightly the canal in Regent’s Park. Rats -constantly make their way to coastal islands, and in a comparative -short time clear the place of indigenous rabbits and birds. Puffin -Island, off the coast of Anglesea, and the Copeland Islands, in Belfast -Bay, are two examples of islands at one time leased for the sake of -their rabbits to people who had to give up the lease after the rats had -landed on them. Similar cases are known off Denmark. They greedily eat -birds’ eggs, and are said to convey them over considerable distances, -though how they do this is not very clear. After the destruction of -the vertebrate land-fauna, they fall back upon the dwellers in the -littoral, and live on prawns, shrimps, and molluscs. They are very fond -of fish, and Lyddeker, in the ‘Royal Natural History,’ states that they -occasionally catch and eat young eels. As their parasites show, they -eat insects such as the meal-beetle, and when in the field they eat -land-snails, insect larvae, and other food, which conveys into their -bodies the same tape-worms, &c., which we find in the hedgehog and in -the smaller carnivora. - -They are, in fact, omnivorous, and nothing in the way of human food -is alien to them. They do enormous harm to corn-ricks and to stored -grain. They are inveterate enemies of the hen-roost, the pigeon-house, -and, as we have seen, of the rabbit-warren. When pressed by hunger, -they readily turn cannibal, and the brown rat easily masters the black. -There are stories of some few specimens of each species being left -in a cage overnight; on the following morning there were only brown -rats in that cage. To some extent they help to keep down one of the -field-mice (Genus _Microtus_), and this is especially the case in North -America;[20] but the benefit is doubtful since they are held to be at -least as destructive to the crops as the field-mice, and probably more -so. - -The ferocity with which they defend themselves when attacked is well -known, and at times, when they are driven by hunger, they do not -hesitate to attack man. They are said to nibble the extremities of -infants, and in one—apparently authentic—instance they overcame and -devoured a man who had entered a disused coal-mine tenanted by starving -rats. The bite is said to be severe (they will bite through a man’s -thumb-nail into the flesh), and the bite is long in healing. - -[20] ‘An Economic Study of Field-mice (Genus _Microtus_).’ By Dr. -Lantz, in _U.S. Dept. of Agric., Biol. Survey_, Bull. 31. - -Rats eat much garbage and offal, and readily feed upon dead bodies. -About sixty years ago there stood, at Monfaucon, a slaughter-house for -horses, and this it was proposed to remove still farther from Paris. It -is stated that the carcasses of the horses slaughtered—which sometimes -amounted to thirty-five a day—were cleared to the bone by rats in the -course of the following night. This excited the attention of a M. -Dusaussois, who made the following experiment: He placed the carcasses -of two or three horses in an enclosure, which permitted the entrance of -rats by certain known and closable paths. Towards midnight, he and some -workmen entered the enclosure, closed the rat-holes, and in the course -of that night killed 2650 rats. He repeated the experiment, and by the -end of four days had killed 9101 rats, and by the end of a month 16,050 -rats. During the process of these experiments other carcasses were -exposed in the neighbourhood, so that in all probability M. Dusaussois -attracted to his enclosure but a small proportion of the total -available number of rats. All around this slaughter-house the country -was riddled with extensive burrows, so that the earth was constantly -falling in. In one place the rodents had formed a pathway, 500 yards -long, leading to a distant burrow. - -A rat census can never be taken; but, estimating that there is one rat -for every human being on these islands, or less than one rat for every -acre of ground, a moderate estimate would give us 40,000,000 rats at -any one time. It has been calculated that a rat does at least 7_s._ -6_d._ worth of damage during the course of the year: hence in Great -Britain and Ireland, we may annually charge them with a loss of at -least £15,000,000! - -From what has been said it is obvious that rats cause enormous damage -to humanity, which is counterbalanced by the almost infinitesimal good -they do as scavengers. I do not propose to consider in detail the harm -they do as disease-carriers, but one cannot forget that the rat is the -primary host of _Trichinella spiralis_, which, when conveyed from the -rat to the pig, and—by eating uncooked or imperfectly cooked pork—from -the pig to man, causes severe and very fatal epidemics, and enforces -the expenditure of large annual sums on meat inspection. They further -convey a virulent form of equine influenza from one stable to another, -and also the ‘foot-and-mouth’ disease. But what is infinitely more -important to man than all the other injuries put together is the harm -they bring to suffering humanity by conveying the bubonic plague from -one patient to another. The plague under which India and great parts of -Burma are ‘groaning and travailing,’ is caused by a specific bacillus -discovered in 1894 by Yersin at Hong-Kong. It flourishes in other -vertebrates besides man and the rat, but, owing to the migratory habits -of the latter, the rat is the most effective agent in the spread of the -disease. Both species of rat seem about equally susceptible, and the -presence of the microbe showed no special relation to either the age -or the sex of either species. The microbe is conveyed from rat to rat -and from rat to man by a flea. - -The destruction of the rat is now being urged on all hands, and in the -near future we shall probably see a considerable diminution in their -numbers in the more civilised countries of the world. This will mean -a considerable upset in the balance of power of the almost hidden -fauna which surrounds us on all hands. It may even, as the Medical -Officer of Health for Bristol has pointed out, lead to an increase -of immigration of ship-rats—those most likely to be infected by -plague—to take up the places vacated on land by the slain. By one of -those commercial agencies—I do not propose to go into the merits of -any one of them—which the enterprise of our merchants is now pressing -on the public, a large landed proprietor a few months ago completely -freed his buildings of rats and mice. A few weeks later his house and -out-buildings were overrun by swarms of what to him—for in the time -of the rats and mice he had never seen one—was a new and formidable -insect. He sought the aid of the Royal Agricultural Society, who -referred the matter to their scientific adviser, who pronounced the -insects to be cockroaches! - -Mr. H. Warner Allen, the representative of the British Press with the -French Army, writes as follows in the _Morning Post_:— - - Of the smaller trench annoyances few are more worrying than the plague - of rats. Shelters and trenches, no matter where they are made, whether - in woods or open fields or on the mountainside, become immediately - infested with the objectionable creatures. In one case within my own - personal knowledge they drove a French officer out of a comfortable - and commodious dug-out into a damp and melancholy shelter, which was - to some extent protected from them by sheets of corrugated iron. The - plague had attained considerable dimensions before a really organised - attempt was made to deal with it, and there were many cases of rats - actually biting men who were chasing them down the trenches. - - Terriers have proved of considerable assistance. Trains full of - dogs have been dispatched to the Front, and poison has been fairly - effective. Lately, a reward has been offered for every dead rat - brought in by men in the trenches, and regular battues have been - organised. In a single fortnight one army corps alone has disposed of - no fewer than 8000 rats. At a halfpenny a rat this has involved an - expense of £16, and it was certainly money well spent. The sport of - rat-catching on such very advantageous terms has proved very popular - among the men, who now suggest that the standing reward offered for - the more dangerous and more exciting form of sport involved in the - capture of a German machine-gun should be raised to a higher figure. - -Ferrets have been largely used in the British trenches, but their price -is now very high, and the supply is very limited. The method which has -had some success in combatting the rabbit-plague of Australia—killing -all captured females and let all captured males loose—is certainly -worth a trial. Rats will gnaw through concrete, but not if plenty of -pieces of broken glass be mixed with the concrete. They will never -cross a band of tar which has been kept liquid by mixing with grease. -In the French trenches, special rat-runs are dug and these are provided -with ‘live’ wires. On touching one of these the rat is electrocuted. - -In the eighteenth century, among the officers of his ‘Britannic -Majesty,’ was an official rat-catcher, whose special uniform was -scarlet, embroidered in yellow worsted with figures of field-mice -destroying wheat-sheaves. Inquiry at the Lord Chamberlain’s office has -satisfied me that the officer still exists and still catches rats, but -I fear the uniform has been abolished. However, a book has recently -appeared dealing officially and exhaustively with all matters of this -kind, and as soon as I can come by it, I will look the matter up. -Should this dignified uniform have really disappeared, might not a -humble petition be presented that it be revived? Surely, never more -than at the present time should the honour and glory of the rat-catcher -be exalted! - - - - - CHAPTER XIV - - THE FIELD-MOUSE (_Apodemus sylvaticus_) - - TO A FIELD-MOUSE - ON TURNING HER UP IN HER NEST WITH THE PLOUGH, NOVEMBER 1785. - - Wee, sleekit, cowrin’, tim’rous beastie, - Oh, what a panic’s in thy breastie! - Thou needna start awa’ sae hasty, - Wi’ bickering brattle! - I wad be laith to rin an’ chase thee, - Wi’ murd’ring pattle! - - I’m truly sorry man’s dominion - Has broken Nature’s social union, - An’ justifies that ill opinion - Which maks thee startle - At me, thy poor earth-born companion, - An’ fellow mortal! - - I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve; - What then? poor beastie, thou maun live! - A daimen icker in a thrave - ’S a sma’ request; - I’ll get a blessin’ wi’ the lave, - An’ never miss ’t! - - Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin! - Its silly wa’s the win’s are strewin’! - An’ naething now to big a new ane - O’ foggage green! - An’ bleak December’s win’s ensuin’, - Baith snell an’ keen! - - Thou saw the fields laid bare an’ waste, - An’ weary winter comin’ fast, - An’ cozie here, beneath the blast, - Thou thought to dwell, - Till, crash! the cruel coulter past - Out thro’ thy cell. - - That wee bit heap o’ leaves an’ stibble, - Has cost thee mony a weary nibble! - Now thou’s turn’d out for a’ thy trouble, - But house or hauld, - To thole the winter’s sleety dribble, - An’ cranreuch cauld! - - But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane, - In proving foresight may be vain: - The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men - Gang aft a-gley, - An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain - For promis’d joy. - - Still thou art blest, compared wi’ me! - The present only touches thee: - But, och! I backward cast my ee - On prospects drear! - An’ forward, tho’ I canna see, - I guess an’ fear. - (BURNS.) - - -Another member of the _MURIDAE_, the field-mouse (_Apodemus -sylvaticus_), is almost as great a nuisance in the trenches as the rat. -The field-mouse is very like the house-mouse, with some of its features -seen under a lens. The hind feet and ears and eyes are larger than -are those of the house-mouse. Perhaps its much longer hind legs help -most easily to differentiate the two species. The tail is of about -the same length as the body and head added together, and is annulated, -presenting some 150 rings. The hands have five-palmar pads, and the -feet six pads. There are six mammae in the female, the anterior pair -being pectoral. - -The general colour of the dorsal surface is described as wood-brown, -which pales at the front end and towards the shoulders and flanks, -and grows to a more reddish tinge at the posterior end. The whole -of the lower surface is of dull, white, silvery colour, and on some -well-developed specimens there is a spot of buff, or orange, on the -throat, which sometimes lengthens out to form a collar. Moulting seems -to be rare—at any rate but a few cases have been recorded. - -The field-mouse occurs all over Europe, and extends into parts of Asia. -It is found all the way from Iceland, southward to Algiers, and from -Ireland to India. In the Himalayas it has been taken at a height of -11,500 feet, and in the mountains of Europe it frequently occurs at a -height of 7000 feet. It is certainly the most universally distributed -of European animals, and the number of individual specimens probably -far exceeds that of any other mammal which occurs in its district. - - [Illustration: FIG. 48.—The field-mouse (_Apodemus sylvaticus_). (From - Barrett Hamilton.)] - -The field-mouse does not hibernate like the dor-mouse, but is active -and hardy at all seasons of the year. Although, like other _MURIDAE_, -it is probably vegetarian by ancestry, it is, in effect, quite -omnivorous. It causes considerable loss in cornfields and gardens, -especially to early-sown peas; it eagerly eats dandelions and any -kind of grain or nut, or berry, or fruit, or bulb, or bud. Even fungi -have been found in their winter stores; and one family was discovered -which had eaten considerable quantities of putty with apparently no -deleterious effect. Their fondness for bulbs is a great nuisance to the -Dutch tulip-merchants. As many as 300 have been trapped in a fortnight -in a single crocus-bed. They are also a nuisance to bee-keepers, -inasmuch as they enter the hive and eat the honeycomb, especially -during the winter. Whilst feeding in the hedgerows, or undergrowth, -they frequently establish themselves in birds’ nests, and occasionally -such nests become their permanent home. - - In the hedge-sparrow’s nest he sits, - When the summer brood is fled, - And picks the berries from the bough - Of the hawthorn overhead. - (_Sketches of Natural History_, 1834.) - -They are not above sucking the birds’ eggs, or even devouring the -young birds. They will sometimes enter disused tunnels and devour -hibernating flies and other insects. Unlike rats, they seldom enter -human habitations, and they are quite innocent of the peculiar odour -which is so disagreeable in the house-mouse; and unlike the house-mouse -and the harvest-mouse they are seldom found in stacks of corn. Their -preference for berries explains the fact that they generally haunt -woods and hedgerows, and their passion for growing corn accounts for -the fact that they swarm in cornfields towards harvest-time. - -The field-mouse, however, does not neglect open and barren districts, -and is found from the sea-beach to the mountain-tops. It seems to -flourish equally well in the flower-beds of the London parks and on the -lonely hills of Scotland. Its activities are largely confined to the -night-time, which may account for the exceptional size of its eyes. -It is described ‘as bounding along in a peculiar zig-zag and erratic -manner, remotely resembling the movements of a kangaroo or jerboa.’ -Its spoor is very characteristic. The hind feet pressing nearly on the -same spot as the fore feet, but less lightly than the latter. From time -to time it sits upright, pricking its ears; and obviously its sense of -hearing is very acute, for it distinguishes sounds inaudible to the -human ear. It is mild in manner, gentle and inoffensive, extremely -timid, and most easily trapped. It is to some extent gregarious, as -many as fourteen or fifteen sometimes being found in the same burrow. - -As Fig. 49 shows, the burrow generally has an entrance which is marked -by a little heap of excavated earth. This leads down into the nest -where food is often stored. - - saepe exiguus mus - Sub terris posuitque domos atque horrea fecit. - (VIRGIL, _Georgics_, i. 18 b.) - -At the other end of the nest there are generally a couple of -bolt-holes separated from one another by an angle of nearly ninety -degrees. - - The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole - Can never be a mouse of any soul. - (POPE, _The Wife of Bath_.) - - [Illustration: FIG. 49.—Diagram of burrow of field-mouse.] - -The field-mouse is prolific, the female producing several litters -throughout the greater part of the year. The mother carries the -young-born litter about for two or three weeks, nipping the skin of her -offspring at the side, half-way between the fore and hind legs. The -average number of young born at one time is probably somewhere about -five, though litters of nine are by no means unknown. All predaceous -animals naturally eat field-mice, and they are the favourite food—at -any rate, in some localities—of owls. - - - - - INDEX - - - Agramonte, Dr., 105 - - Albertus Magnus, 135 - - Allen, H. Warner, 151 - - _Anobium paniceum_ (biscuit-‘weevil’), 111, 112 - - _A. striatum_, 111 - - _Apodemus sylvaticus_ (field-mouse), 153, 154 - - _Anopheles maculipennis_, 42, 65, 106; - head of, 49; - distribution of, 51; - hibernation of, 54; - breeding habits of, 55-6; - sensibility to light, 59; - and colour, 60-3, 110; - extermination of, 63; - buzzing of, 73-4; - eggs of, 78; - larva, 86 - - Austen, 55 - - - _Bacillus lactis aerogenes_, _B. cloacae_, 23 - - Bell, 135 - - Bellesme, Jousset de, 72 - - Biscuit-‘weevil,’ 111-13 - - Blandford, Dr., 135, 140 - - _Blattodea_, 4 - - Bombay Plague Commission, 137, 145 - - Bot- or warble-fly, 25, 27; - effect on cattle, 40; - cure for, 41 - - _British Medical Journal_, 24, 63 - - Browne, Sir Samuel James, 27 - - - Cambon, 59 - - Canada, 31, 32 - - Carpenter, Prof. G. H., 36 - - Carroll, Dr., 105 - - _Ceratopogon_, 42 - - _Challenger_, H.M.S., 16 - - _Churchill’s Voyages_, 142 _n._ - - Cropper, J., 63 - - Cockroaches (Periplaneta), 1, 3; - food of, 8, 11, 13, 17 - - _Culex_, 42, 50, 51, 55, 58, 79, 88, 90, 106-7 - - - Duncan, P. M., 21 _n._ - - Dusaussois, 148 - - - _Ectobia_, 4 - - Elephantiasis, 47 - - Entomology, Washington Bureau of, 114, 118 - - _Ephestia cautella_, 114, 115, 117, 121 - - _E. kühniella_, 115, 116, 117 - - - Field-mouse, 154-9 - - Fig-moth, 114; - ravages of, 117-22; - prevention of infection by, 123 - - _Filaria_, 47 - - _Filaria rhytipleurites_, 21 - - _Filaria labiato-papillosa_, 131 - - Finlay (of Havana), 104 - - Finsch, 53 - - - Gardiner, J. Stanley, 73 - - Gesner, 136 - - Gleichen-Russworm, von, 73 - - Grassi, 54, 55, 68, 77, 78, 79, 84 - - Gray, 58 - - - Hadwen, Dr., 31, 32 - - _Halobates_, 2 - - Helm, 135 - - Hewitt, T. R., 36 - - Hindle, Mr., 131 - - Howard, 58, 71, 74, 77, 94 - - _Hypoderma_, 25, 28 - - _Hypoderma bovis_, 31, 32; - eggs of, 34 - - _Hypoderma lineatum_, 31, 32; - eggs of, 34, 38 - - - Imms, Mr., 31 - - Infantile paralysis (poliomyelitis), 132 - - Irish Department of Agriculture, 36 - - Ismailia, 98 - - - Jenyns, 136, 141 - - Johnston (of Baltimore), 65, 66, 67 - - Joly, 74 - - - Kerschbaumer, 57 - - - Lantz, Dr., 147 _n._ - - Larva, of bot-flies, 28, 35; - of mosquitos, 80-5, 90, 91, 97; - of yellow-fever mosquito, 107; - of stable-fly, 130 - - Latter, 4 - - Lazear, Dr., 105 - - Lefroy, Prof., 63 - - Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, 55 - - Lyddeker, 146 - - - Malaria, 48, 104; - prevention of, 98 - - Maxim, Sir Hiram, 75 - - Mayer, 67 - - Miall and Denny, 5 - - _Microlepidoptera_, 116 _n._ - - Morrell, Dr. C. Conyers, 21, 23 - - Moseley, Prof., 16 - - Mosquitos, biting apparatus, 43; - wings, 50; - hibernation of female, 54; - food of, 64-7; - experiments with, 60-3, 67-8; - how to avoid, 63-4; - auditory organs of, 65; - buzzing of, 68-74; - eggs of, 76 - - Moufet, 3 - - _Muridae_, 154, 156 - - _Mus_ or _Epimys_, 135 - - _Mus rattus_ or _Epimys rattus_, 135 _n._, 136, 139, 144, 145 - - _M. decumanus_ or _Norvegicus_, 135 _n._, 137, 140, 141, 142, 145 - - _M. alexandrinus_, 140 - - _Musca domestica_, 125, 126 - - - Neumann, R. O. and O., 109 - - Nuttall, Professor, 47, 52, 54, 56, 57, 58, 71, 77 - - - Ormerod, Miss, 28, 30 - - _Oestridae_ (bot-flies), 28 - - - Pennant, 138, 139, 141 - - Perez, J., 71, 72 - - _Periplaneta orientalis_, 4, 5, 16 - - _P. americana_, 4 - - _P. germanica_, 5, 16 - - Plague conveyed by rats, 149 - - Port Swettenham, 98 - - _Ptinidae_, 111 - - Pupa of mosquitos, 92-5, 97 - - _Pyralidae_, 116 _n._ - - - Rats, black, or Old-English, 137; - brown, 141; - ravages of 145-9; - estimated annual damage by, 149; - diseases conveyed by, 149; - destruction of, 150, 152; - in the trenches, 151 - - Reed, Dr. Walter, 105 - - Ross, Sir Ronald, 97, 98, 104 - - - Sam Browne belts, 26 - - _Sigmodon_ (rice-rat), 140 - - Smyrna, Report of the fig-moth in, 114 _n._ - - Smyth, E. G., 118 - - _Sphex_ (or _Chlorion_), 20 - - _Spirogyra_, 84 - - Stable-fly, 125; - food of, 128; - diseases conveyed by, 131, 132 - - _Stegomyia calopus_ or _fasciata_, 101, 105; - domesticated, 108; - bites of, 108, 110 - - _Stomoxys calcitrans_ (stable-fly), 125; - distribution of, 127; - eggs of, 129; - diseases conveyed by, 131, 132, 133; - extermination of, 133 - - _Symbius blattarum_, 21 - - - Thayer, Dr., 53 - - Thomas, Oldfield, 140 - - _Trichinella spiralis_, 149 - - _Trypanosoma_, 131 - - - ‘Warbled’ hides, 30 - - Watson, Dr. Malcolm, 98 - - Weaver, A. de P., 74, 75 - - Weinland, 73 - - Whelan, R. G., 37 - - White, Gilbert, 5 - - Wilson, Edwin, 69, 73 - - - _Xestobium tessellatum_, 111 - - - Yellow-fever, 101-3; - localities affected by, American commission on, 105 - - Yellow-fever mosquito, 101, 104; - metamorphosis of, 109 - - Yersin, 149 - - - AT THE BALLANTYNE PRESS - PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE, BALLANTYNE AND CO. 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