Our Insect Friends and Enemies; The Relation of Insects to Man, to Other Animals, to One Another, and to Plants, with a Chapter on the War Against Insects (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1909 Excerpt: ...or coat themselves with mud. The spiracles of most lice are not well protected, so when animals get into a dusty road and roll about, this serves a very practical purpose and those that get into a mud hole and wallow are often seeking similar relief. Other species of Hemiptera preying upon man will be considered under the heading of household pests. Besides the sucking lice belonging to the order Hemiptera, many animals and most birds are also subject to the attacks of biting lice, belonging to the order Mallophaga, which means, literally, wool-eaters, and is somewhat misleading. Commonly they are also known as "bird-lice" because they very usually infest the feathered tribe. In color and appearance they do not much differ from the sucking lice; but the head is usually more blunt, and instead of puncturing the skin and living on blood, they have mouth parts formed for chewing and biting, and live rather on the surface scales and scurf at the roots of the hair and feathers. They do not puncture the skin to reach blood, but will feed on clotted blood at the edge of any wound and may prevent healing, or even cause the extension of a sore spot. And so, while a few individuals on the skin cause little inconvenience or unpleasant effect, yet when a great number are at work, the feeding at the base of the hair and of the smaller feathers results in the death of these out-growths and the infested animal becomes "mangy" in appearance. The true mange is, of course, due to a mite parasite of quite a different kind; but that "mange" which consists of bare spots on a hairy animal or thin plumage on a chicken or other bird, is very apt to be due to biting lice. In breeding habits they resemble the Pediculids very nearly; the eggs are fastene...