Animal Parasites and Messmates

CHAPTER V.. Parasites.

PARASITES.

Distinction between Parasites and Carnivora--Parasites found on all Classes of Animals--Males dependent on Females--Parasites on Man--Abundant Parasites in Stork-- All the Organs nourish Parasites--Different size of Male and Female--Lerneans--Diplozoa--Migration of Parasites--Corresponding Changes of Form--Parasites restricted to certain Regions--Former Theory of Spontaneous Generation 85

CHAPTER VI.. Parasites Free During Their Whole Life.

PARASITES FREE DURING THEIR WHOLE LIFE.

Leeches--Vampires--Cylicobdellæ--Branchellions--Gnats-- Blackflies--Mosquitoes--Gnats in high Latitudes--Tsetse-- Ox-flies--Pteropti--Nycteribiæ--Bugs-- Lice--Fleas--Itch Insect--Acari on Beetles and Bees--Cheyletus eruditus 107

CHAPTER VII.. Parasites Free While Young.

PARASITES FREE WHILE YOUNG.

Isopod Parasites--Chigoe--Ticks--Pigeon-mite--Bopyridæ-- Ichthoxenus--Peltogasters--Tracheliastes--Penellæ-- Lerneans--Guinea-worm--Leptodera of Snail--Nematodes in Bones--Lichnophoræ--Gregarinæ 138

CHAPTER VIII.. Parasites That Are Free When Old.

PARASITES THAT ARE FREE WHEN OLD.

Utility of Ichneumons--Scoliæ of Tan-beetles--Scolyti of Seychelles Cocoa-nut Trees--Elms at Brussels destroyed by Scolyti--Polynema in Eggs of Dragon-fly--Sphex--Platygaster-- Horse-fly--Livingstone--Animals in Paraguay destroyed by ix Hippobosci--Dipterous Parasites on Sheep and Stag--Gordius-- Shower of Worms--Eels in Ears of Corn 162

CHAPTER IX.. Parasites That Migrate and Undergo Metamorphoses.

PARASITES THAT MIGRATE AND UNDERGO METAMORPHOSES.

Nostosites--Xenosites--Hosts serving as a Crèche, a Vehicle, or a Lying-in Hospital--Lamarck on Spontaneous Generation--Trematodes--Monostomes--Sporocysts and Cercariæ--Passage from one Host to another--Distomes-- Flukes--Hemistomes--Amphistomes--Tæniæ of the Dog and Wolf--Hydatids--Tænia solium in Man--Cysticercus of Pig--Cysticercus of Rabbit and Hare passing into Dog-- Coenurus of Sheep--Bothriocephalus--Linguatula in Negro-- Strongyli--Trichinæ--Panic in Germany--Vibriones in Corn-- Echinorrhynchus--Dicyema 183

CHAPTER X.. Parasites During Their Whole Life.

PARASITES DURING THEIR WHOLE LIFE.

Strepsitera--Stylops--Rhipiptera--Tristomidæ--Epibdella-- Diplozoon, two Individuals--Polystomum of Frog--Gyrodactyles-- Cochineal Insect--Aphides--Phylloxera of Vine--An Acaris, its Mortal Enemy--Ant-Cows--Bonnet's Theory of Germs--The Reduvius personatus, a valuable enemy to the Bed-bug 255

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. x

FIG. PAGE

1.--Ophiodendrum abietinum on Sertularia abietina 66 2.--Ricinus of the Pygarg 72 3.--Caligulus elegans, female: ditto, natural size 73 4.--Different forms of the Bite of a Leech 110 5.--Sucker and jaws 110 6.--Anatomy of Leech 110 7.--Antenna of Gnat 115 8.--Gnat, male and female 118 9, 10.--Lucilia hominivora 120 11.--Ox-fly 121 12.--Antenna of Ox-fly 121 13.--Blue-fly 121 14.--Flesh-fly 122 15.--House-fly 122 16.--Bed-bug 124 17.--Louse 125 18.--Louse--Suckers 126 19.--Ditto--Claw 126 20.--Flea (Pulex irritans) 128 21.--Itch-mite 131 22.--Ditto, female--back view 131 23.--Ditto, male--back view 132 24.--Geographical water-mite 136 25.--Book-mite 137 26.--Chigoe, male 141 27.--Ditto, head 141 28.--Ditto, female 141 29.--Phryxus Rathkei 145 30.--Tracheliastes of Cyprinidæ 149 xi 31.--Lernea branchialis attached to Morrhua luscus 151 32.--Young Guinea-worm, showing Mouth, Tail, and section of Body 153 33.--Gregarinæ of Nemertes 160 34.--Sac with Psorospermiæ from Sepia officinalis 160 35.--Stylorhynchus Melophagus oligacanthus from Dragon-fly 161 36.--Horse-fly, showing also Anterior and Posterior Extremity 172 37.--Macaco Worm 175 38.--Melophagus of the Sheep 177 39.--Lipoptena of Stag 177 40.--Gordius aquaticus 178 41.--Monostomum verrucosum--Sporocyst with Cercariæ 191 42.--Liver fluke 198 43.--Monostomum mutabile 202 44.--Ditto, ciliated Embryo and young Cercariæ 202 45.--Cercaria of Amphistoma sub-clavatum 203 46.--Sporocyst of Amphistoma sub-clavatum 203 47.--Ditto, from Frog 205 48.--Polystomum integerrimum 205 49.--Cysticercus 206 50.--Vesicular Worm 211 51.--Tape-worm (Tænia solium), showing Scolex and Proglottides 214 52.--Ditto, Rostellum and Suckers 214 53.--Tænia medio-canellata 219 54.--Coenurus of Sheep, and Hydatid 223 55.--Scolex of Tænia echinococcus 226 56.--Tænia echinococcus from the Pig 226 57.--Ditto, from the Dog 227 58.--Bothriocephalus latus 227 59.--Scolex of ditto 227 60.--Egg of ditto 227 61.--Tænia variabilis from Snipe 230 62.--Ditto, more highly magnified 230 63.--Tetrarhynchus appendiculatus from the Plaice 230 64.--Hook of Linguatula 232 65.--Linguatula, showing Hooks 232 66.--Strongylus gigas, female 239 67.--Ascaris lumbricoides; also Head, Tail, and Body 240 68.--Trichocephalus from Man 241 69.--Oxyuris vermicularis, natural size and magnified 241 xii 70.--Trichina, free 243 71.--Trichina encysted in Muscle 243 72.--Echinorhynchus proteus 252 73.--Sac with Psorospermiæ from Sepia officinalis 252 74.--Gregarinæ from Nemertes Gesseriensis 253 75.--Stylorhynchus oligacanthus 253 76.--Dicyema Krohnii from Sepia officinalis 254 77.--Stylops 256 78.--Ditto, with Embryos 257 79.--Larva of Black Stylops 257 80.--Cochineal Insects, male 263 81.--Ditto, female 264 82.--Aphis 264 83.--Rose Aphis, male and female 265

INTRODUCTION. xiii

"The edifice of the world is only sustained by the impulses of hunger and love."--SCHILLER.

In that great drama which we call Nature, each animal plays its especial part, and He who has adjusted and regulated everything in its due order and proportion, watches with as much care over the preservation of the most repulsive insect, as over the young brood of the most brilliant bird. Each, as it comes into the world, thoroughly knows its part, and plays it the better because it is more free to obey the dictates of its instinct. There presides over this great drama of life a law as harmonious as that which regulates the movements of the heavenly bodies; and if death carries off from the scene every hour myriads of living creatures, each hour life causes new legions to rise up in order to replace them. It is a whirlwind of being, a chain without end.

This is now more fully known; whatever the animal may be, whether that which occupies the highest or the lowest place in the scale of creation, it consumes water and carbon, and albumen sustains its vital force.

Therefore, the Hand which has brought the world out of chaos, has xiv varied the nature of this food; it has proportioned this universal nourishment to the necessities and the peculiar organization of the various species which have to derive from it the power of motion and the continuance of their lives.

The study whose aim is to make us acquainted with the kind of food adapted to each animal constitutes an interesting branch of Natural History. The bill of fare of every animal is written beforehand in indelible characters on each specific type; and these characters are less difficult for the naturalist to decipher than are palimpsests for the archæologist.

Under the form of bones or scales, of feathers or shells, they show themselves in the digestive organs. It is by paying, not domiciliary, but stomachic visits, that we must be initiated into the details of this domestic economy. The bill of fare of fossil animals, though written in characters less distinct and complete, can still be very frequently read in the substance of their coprolites. We do not despair even to find some day the fishes and the crustaceans which were chased by the plesiosaurs and the ichthyosaurs, and to discover some parasitic worms which had entered with them into the convolutions of the intestines of the saurians.

Naturalists have not always studied with sufficient care the correspondence which exists between the animal and its food, although it supplies the student with information of a very valuable kind. In fact, every organized body, whether conferva or moss, insect or mammal, becomes the prey of some animal; every organic substance, sap or blood, horn or feather, flesh or bone, disappears under the teeth xv of some one or other of these; and to each kind of débris correspond the instruments suitable for its assimilation. These primary relations between living beings and their alimentary regimen call forth the activity of every species.

We find, on closer examination, more than one analogy between the animal world and human society; and without much careful scrutiny, we may say that there is no social position which has not (if I may dare to use the expression) its counterpart among the lower animals.

The greater part of these live peaceably on the fruit of their labour, and carry on a trade by which they gain their livelihood; but by the side of these honest workers we find also some miserable wretches who cannot do without the assistance of their neighbours, and who establish themselves, some as parasites in their organs, others as uninvited guests, by the side of the booty which they have gained.

Some years ago, one of our learned and ingenious colleagues at the University of Utrecht, Professor Harting, wrote a charming book on the industry of animals, and demonstrated that almost every trade is known in the animal kingdom. We find among them miners, masons, carpenters, paper manufacturers, weavers, and we may even say lace-makers, all of whom work first for themselves, and afterwards for their progeny. Some dig the earth, construct and support vaults, clear away useless earth, and consolidate their works, like miners; others build huts or palaces according to all the rules of architecture; others know intuitively all the secrets of the manufacturers of paper, cardboard, woollen stuffs or lace; and their productions need not fear comparison with xvi the point-lace of Mechlin or of Brussels. Who has not admired the ingenious construction of the beehive or of the ant-hill, or the delicate and marvellous structure of the spider's web? The perfection of some of these works is so great and so generally appreciated, that when the astronomer requires for his telescope a slender and delicate thread, he applies to a living shop, to a simple spider. When the naturalist wishes to test the comparative excellence of his microscope, or requires a micrometer for infinitely little objects, he consults, not a millimetre, divided and subdivided into a hundred or a thousand parts, but the simple carapace of a diatom, so small and indistinct that it is necessary to place a hundred of them side by side to render them visible to the naked eye: and still more, the best microscopes do not always reveal all the delicacy of the designs which decorate these Lilliputian frustules. Mons. H. Ph. Adan has lately shown, with an artist's talent, the infinite beauties which the microscope reveals in this invisible world.

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