insect plagues and insect services.
the universal dominion of insects—mosquitoes—stinging flies—œstrus hominis—the chegoe or jigger—the filaria medinensis—the bête-rouge—blood-sucking ticks—garapatas—the land-leeches in ceylon—the tsetsé fly—the tsalt-salya—the locust—its dreadful devastations—cockroaches—the drummer—the cucarachas and chilicabras—tropical ants—the saüba—the driver ants—termites—their wonderful buildings—the silkworm—the cochineal—the gumlac insect—insects used as food and ornaments.
the insect tribes may, without exaggeration, be affirmed to hold a kind of universal empire over the earth and its inhabitants, for nothing that possesses, or has possessed, life is secure from their attacks. they vanquish the cunning of the fox, the bulk of the elephant, the strength of the lion; they plague the reindeer of the northern tundras, and the antelope of the african wilds; and all the weapons with which nature has furnished the higher orders of animals against their mightier foes prove ineffectual against these puny persecutors, whose very smallness serves to render them invincible. how numerous are the sufferings they entail on man! how manifold the injuries they inflict on his person or his property! to secure himself from their attacks, a perpetual warfare, an ever-wakeful222 vigilance, is necessary; for, though destroyed by thousands, new legions ever make their appearance, and to repose after a victory is equivalent to a defeat.
in our temperate zone, where a higher cultivation of the ground tends to keep down the number of the lower animals, their persecutions, though frequently annoying, may still be borne with patience; but in many of the tropical regions, where man is either too indolent or not sufficiently numerous to set bounds to their increase, the insects constitute one of the great plagues of life.
along the low river-banks, near stagnant waters, and everywhere on hot and swampy grounds, the blood-thirsty mosquitoes appear periodically in countless multitudes, the dread of all who are exposed to their attacks.
mosquito.
not satisfied with piercing the flesh with their sharp proboscis, which at the same time forms a kind of syphon through which the blood flows, these malignant gnats, of which there are many species, inject a poison into the wound, which causes inflammation, and prolongs the pain.
in angola, dr. livingstone found the banks of the river seuza infested by legions of the most ferocious mosquitoes he ever met with during the course of his long travels. ‘not one of our party could get a snatch of sleep. i was taken into the house of a portuguese, but was soon glad to make my escape, and lie across the path on the lee-side of the fire, where the smoke blew over my body. my host wondered at my want of taste, and i at his want of feeling; for, to our astonishment, he and the other inhabitants had actually become used to what was at least equal to a nail through the heel of one’s boot, or the tooth-ache.’
‘he who has never sailed on one of the great rivers of tropical america, the orinoco, or the magdalena,’ says humboldt, ‘can form no idea of the torments inflicted by the mosquitoes. however accustomed the naturalist may be to suffer pain without complaining, however his attention may be riveted by the examination of some interesting object, he is unavoidably disturbed when mosquitoes, zancudos, zejens, and tempraneros cover his223 hands and face, pierce his clothes, or creep into his nose and mouth. in the missions of the orinoco, in these small villages, situated on the river banks and surrounded by interminable woods, this plague affords an inexhaustible subject for conversation. when two people meet in the morning their first questions are—‘how did the zancudos behave last night?’ ‘how are the mosquitoes to-day?’
at the mouth of the red river the unfortunate inhabitants lay down at night upon the ground, and cover themselves with three or four inches of sand, so that only the head remains free, over which they spread a protecting cloth. above the influx of the rio arauca into the orinoco, at the cataracts of baragnon, the atmosphere up to a height of 15 or 21 feet, is filled with a dense mist of stinging insects. placing oneself in some dark spot, for instance in one of the deep hollows formed in the cataracts by mounds of granitic blocks and looking towards the opening illumined by the sun, one sees whole clouds of mosquitoes, increasing or diminishing in density as the creatures in their slow and rhythmic motions now draw more closely together, and then again separate. in esmeralda, at the eastern extremity of the upper orinoco, the mosquito clouds are almost as thick as at the cataracts. when the superior of the monastic order to which the mission belongs, wishes to punish a lay brother, he sends him to esmeralda, or, as the monks facetiously remark, ‘condemns him to the mosquitoes.’
