horny plate that can mostly be seen from the upper surface of the insect." "1 * They abound in the bushes and shrubs on the campos, and their peculiar rasping note attracts attention all the more, because it is only when the insect is at rest and invisible that the sound is produced. Mr. Bates says,† "One large kind, perched high on the trees around our little haven, set up a most piercing chirp; it began with the usual harsh jarring tone of its tribe, but this gradually and rapidly became shriller, until it ended in a long and loud note resembling the steam whistle of a locomotive engine." Mr. Bates speaks of another kind near Ega, as "very handsome, having wings adorned with patches of bright green and scarlet" (probably Zammara tympanum). "It was very common. . . . On approaching a tree thus peopled, a number of little jets of a clear liquid would be seen squirted from aloft. I have often received the well-directed discharge full on my face; but the liquid is harmless, having a sweetish taste, and is ejected by the insect. . . . probably in selfdefence, or from fear." +

HEMIPTERA HETEROPTERA.

I collected the following in Minas Geraes. The specimens were named from the collection, and the classification is from the Catalogue of the Specimens of Heteropterous Hemiptera in the Collection of the British Museum," by Francis Walker, F.L.S., in eight parts, London, 1867–73.

§ C.H. refers to Dallas's list of Hemiptera in the British Museum.

Spiders.-The only curious spiders that I collected which are worthy of note are two remarkable species of the genera Acrosoma and Gasteracantha. In each instance the body is contained in a perfectly hard shell. In the case of the Acrosoma it is triangular and pyramidal, while in the Gasteracantha it is of the form of a crab's carapace. I also took several species of Mygale of various sizes; the largest about two inches in length of body, seven inches across the legs, the entire body and legs being covered with reddish-brown hair. Mr. Bates* refers to a similar species, and thus describes its bird-slaying habits: "I was * Vol. i. p. 161.

attracted by a movement of the monster on a tree trunk; it was close beneath a deep crevice in the tree, across which was stretched a dense white web. The lower part of the web was broken, and two small birds (finches) were entangled in the pieces; they were about the size of the English siskin, and I judged the two to be male and female. One of them was quite dead, the other lay under the body of the spider, not quite dead, and was smeared with the filthy liquor or saliva exuded by the monster. I drove away the spider and took the birds, but the second one soon died. Some Mygales are of immense size. One day I saw the children belonging to an Indian family who collected for me with one of these monsters, secured by a cord round its waist, by which they were leading it about the house as they would a dog.”

THE PARASITIC TORMENTS OF BRAZIL.

The carrapato,* or bush-tick, so often referred to is a degenerate spider (Acaridæ, Arachnida). The annoyance it caused us far exceeded that from any other animal, or reptile, or insect, that we came across. Chernoviz † names three species of this tick: Ixodes ricinus, Latr.; I. plumbeus, and I. reticulatus, Latr. But I found more than three species; the smallest are the size of our harvest-bug, and the largest are about three-quarters of an inch in diameter. Captain Burton ‡ says that "the insect was called by the ancients κротov and ricinus, on account of its resemblance to the ripe bean of the Palma Christi.§ It is the vincucha of Paraguay, the tique of French Guiana, and the ricinus of old authors. This Acaride, seen under the glass, shows a head armed with a trident of teeth, serrated inwards; the two external blades of the terebro when entering the flesh bend away, forming a triangle, with the base outwards and downwards, and rendering it difficult to remove the plague. The three pairs of short and one of long legs are all provided with sharp and strongly hooked claws. . . . In most parts of Minas and São Paolo the nuisance

* "Carra" is an Indian word in frequent use; thus, carapicho = a burr, caramujo or caracol = a large snail (Bulimus).

+ "Diccionario de medicina popular."

‡ Vol. i. p. 158.

§ Inversely in Brazil the seed of the castor-oil plant (mamona or ricino) is termed "carrapato.'

is general; it seems to be in the air; every blade of grass has its colony; clusters of hundreds adhere to the twigs; myriads are found in the bush clumps. Lean and flat when growing on the leaves, the tick catches man or beast brushing by, fattens rapidly, and, at the end of a week's good living, drops off plena cruoris." Chernoviz states that "Carrapatos lay an enormous number of eggs, not on the bodies of the animals where they have lived, but on the ground. The young which emerge from them climb up the plants, holding on to the leaves, and wait until some animal passes." Mr. Bates mentions * that it occupied him a full hour daily to pick them off after his diurnal ramble, and continues, "When they mount to the summits of slender blades of grass, or the tips of leaves, they hold on by their fore legs only, the other three pairs being stretched out so as to fasten on any animal which comes in their way." "Horses and cattle † suffer greatly from the Ixodes, and even die from exhaustion." I have frequently seen, under the manes of horses who have been out some days at grass, a mass of some dozen or twenty huge ticks, each the size of a broad bean. "The traveller soon wears a belt of bites like the 'shingles' of Lancashire. The tick attacks the most inconvenient places, and the venomous irritating wound will bring on a ricinian fever, like the pulicious fever of Russia. . . . The excitement of day-travelling makes the nuisance comparatively light; but when lying down to sleep, the sufferer is persecuted by the creeping and crawling of the small villain, and the heat of the bed adds much to his tribulation." All this is, alas! too true. "The favourite habitat is the capoeira, or second growth" (after the virgin forest has been cut down), "where the cattle graze. The low shrubs . . . are also good breeding-grounds. Annual prairie fires destroy millions, but the capões, or bouquets de bois, act as preserves, and the branches are incrusted with them." I found that they are almost exclusively confined to localities where domestic animals graze. In one pasture there were such countless myriads that my men termed it the Fazenda dos Carrapatos.

One comfort, at least, of the rainy season is that the tropical deluges wash them off the shrubs, so that from October to April

one is free from them. I went out for a few days' work in May, returning each night to town. The wretches were then just hatched, and as small as pins' points. Every night some eighty or a hundred were picked off before they had time to burrow and disappear, for this minute kind ensconces himself entirely beneath the skin. In the dry season I used to sponge myself twice daily with diluted carbolic acid, and cover myself with Keating's powder. It proved rather beneficial, as I found after the day's work that although I was host to hundreds of them, they were generally still roaming, and had not found a place to burrow in, or, at worst, were not firmly fixed. My men advocated various cures mercurial ointment, cutting them in two with scissors (this is inadvisable, as the head, being left in, festers), inserting a red-hot pin, washing with cachaça and tobacco-water. Captain Burton mentions a Frenchman who was painfully intoxicated after this last process. The ciriema and many other birds are great destroyers of this pest, and are never shot by the natives on that account.

Figgers. The jiggers are called by the natives "bichos do pé," or foot beasties. The word "bicho" is a very comprehensive term in Brazil. When I showed the natives the portrait of Barnum's white elephant in the Graphic, they said, "Oh, que bicho!" ("Oh, what a creature!") Another, speaking of my dog, said, "O cachoro é o bicho mais amaroso que ha ("The dog is the most affectionate animal that exists").

The jigger is the Pulex irritans, or subintrans, or minimus, or penetrans (Aphaniptera, Kirby), known also as chigre, cheger, chegre, chegve, chigo, chigoe, chigger, jigger, nigua (Span.), chica, chique (Fr.), tungua, tumbyra, pique, and chigua. This wretch is too well known to need any description. It is generally only taken from old and dirty houses, and I never came across it until I had my own hired house at Brumado; then I soon made its acquaintance, but found that was due to going about in slippers without socks. I had only five in my feet from January to June. As they are generally supposed to burrow under the toe-nails, I may mention the habitat of my little guests-the first on the right big toe, second and third on right and left heel, and two under the sole of my left foot. I extracted them all myself. I never felt them, but found on examination a hard black speck. I then