The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1910-07-16

III some one were 10 ten you VI d
creature covered with a heavy armor
of horn and provided with two large
triangular slashing weapons IN add
ton to two lances and very sharp
stiletto, having the longest and most
powerful hind legs of any being in ex-
istence. so strong and powerful that
the animal could jump 500 times its
own length, and if YOU were to be
further told that this creature was
abroad upon the face of the earth to-
day, causing more deaths annually
than all the yenOmous reptiles and
ferocious beasts in the world, would
you not imagine that the narrator
was the victim of Authorizations far
eutclassing those of the most habit
uated pine dreamer?" asks William
Colby Rucker, in the Technical World
Magazine. Or. Rucker is a passed
assistant surgeon in the United States
Public Health and Marine Hospital
service.
yet" he continues, "such crea-
ture does exist, and in many varying
forms is found in almost every quar-
ter of the globe and upon practically
every animal having hairy coat. 1t
is only in recent years, however, that
this insect, the fiea-there, the secret
is out-nas excited anything more
than a natural curiosity on the part
of the scientists who desire to know
and catalogue every living thing upon
the surface of the earth.
almost every animal having
coat of hair has his own particular
variety of flea. In other words, feas
vary with their host; but one host
may harbor six different species of
feas, or one. species may occupy six
different hosts In general it may be
said, however, that each flea bearing
animal has its own choice stock with
in its flea preserves. For example,
man elects the Puley irritans (paren-
thetically it may be noted that this
species is also chosen by the skunk
and the hog); the dog, the Glencoe
phalus CAMS, while the mouse has
little blind flea of its own
Family Peculiarities.
''The Ceratophyllus fasciatus, the
common rat flea of the United States,
has a collar of heavy spikes about its
neck, giving it the appearance of a
Fifth avenue bulldog; the Ctenopsyl-
lus musculi, the mouse flea, is blind;
the Ctenocephalus CAMS has large
cavalryman mustache of heavy
spines; the Pulex irritans is globular
in shape and has no collar at all,
while the rabbits affinity, the Hoplop-
STYLUS affinus, has two heavy clasping
plates resembling a pair Of ice tongs
with which he anchors himself to his
victim.
THE flea has an oval body which
is flattened to permit easy progress
through the hair of its host. 1t is as
though this insect had been literally
narrowed so that it might move with
ease in the hairy forest which it in
habits. 1t is covered, armedillolike,
with heavy plates of chitin laid on
like the shingles of a house. This
chitin is hard, hornlike substance
which is insolubale in acids, and is
dissolved only by strong alkaline So
lutions. We thus see that the insect
has been provided by nature with an
almost impregnable defensive armor.
AT the points where the plates
overlap are the openings of the re-
spiratory apparatus, and it is through
these that the flea breathes. These
are twenty-four in number and are
the only vulnerable points on the in
sect. In fact, almost the only way to
kill f1eas, if we except crushing and
starvation, is by means of fine, moist |
dust such as buhach, which clogs the
respiratory orifces, or by poisonous
gases.
Smells with "Pygidium."
gifted over the tail like a saddle |
and protected by an innumerable
number of fine bristles is the organ
of smell, the pygidium. This is
roughly triangular in shape and con-
sists of a platelike structure having
a number of sensory pits which look
as though hey had been punched out. |
Immediately below this plate is q
large respiratory opening which takes |
the place of a nostril. The air pass
Ing over the pygidium to this opening
irritates the fine bristles, thus trans
hitting the sensation of smell. This |
organ is very necessary to the flea |