THE SPANISH FLY, OR CANTHARIS.
(Cantharis vesicatoria.)
These insects are found but rarely in this country; they are more common in France, but Spain, Italy, and Russia seem to be their favourite localities. They make their appearance in July, and are generally found upon ash trees, the leaves of which form their food. They are of great commercial importance, for they are found very useful in medicine on account of their remarkable blistering powers. They have a very disagreeable smell, and emit a fluid of so corrosive a nature that many persons have suffered greatly from gathering them; and it is said to be extremely dangerous to sleep under a tree infested by them, as their smell produces a lethargic sleep, which frequently terminates in death. They are generally caught by laying linen cloths under the trees they infest, and beating the boughs; they are then put into hair sieves, and held over vessels of boiling vinegar, till the vapour kills them. After this they are dried in ovens, or on hurdles, exposed to the sun, and then packed up for sale. When dried, fifty of them hardly weigh a drachm, but they do not lose their medicinal properties by age unless allowed to get damp. Though bearing the name Spanish Flies, the greatest quantity is obtained from St. Petersburg, the Russian insects being considered the best.
They are of a highly poisonous nature, and there are many instances, some even recent, of their producing violent hemorrhage and death.
THE CORN-WEEVIL. (Calandra granaria.)
This is a little beetle about an eighth of an inch in length, of a reddish-brown colour, with a slender proboscis projecting from the front of the head, at the extremity of which the mouth is situated. As this proboscis is not thicker than a fine needle, our readers may form some notion of the minute size of the jaws with which the mouth is furnished; nevertheless, they are sufficiently powerful to enable the little creature to eat corn and biscuit. In the larva state they are exceedingly destructive to corn in granaries, sometimes abounding to such an extent in a heap of grain as to leave nothing of it but the husks.