Chapter I: 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

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