Camping and woodcraft - Scoutmastercg.com

252' CAMPING AND WOODCRAFT"these despicable enemies he could not conquer.with Scorpioncocked tails, spiders six inches in diameter, and c^entlo'fmos^^uitoes' ?". !^^ '°^^"^' ^'' "^ ^^'^ ^ ^^^ - ^ ^Kid.Ji'i ^^^ ^•"'"^. o^„ sand-fly, a species ofcalled tromhidiummosquito in Peru. It is a minute,dipterdark-coloredwith two triangular, horny lancets,mall, which leavecircular ared spot on the skin. It works bylie/ingday rethe mosquito at sunrise. It is the great scourge ofIn ,W "'""k ^'"^ ^ paradisiac spotanis%onverted^in°oinferno by its presence. There are severalwhich speciesfollow one another in succession through theall of them daybeing diurnal. Their favorite regionto be on is saTdthe Cassiquiare and upper Orinoco. (3.)The maruim, which resembles the pium.infinitely The- arenumerous on the Jurua. Humboldt estimatedthere were a million to a cubic foot of air where he was.^otucac^Wtd tabono/.iv on the. NMaranon {Hadruslepidotus) resembling a small horse-fly, of a bronze-blackcolor with the tips of the wings transparent, andmidable a for-proboscis, ...(5) The moquim ... a microscopic scarlet acarus resembhnga minute crab under the glass. It swarm's onweeds and bushes and on the skin causes an intolerableItching. An hour's walk through the grassy streets of1 effe was sufficient to cover my entire bodv with mvriadsoi moquims, which it took a week, and repeated bathingwith rum, to exterminate.{e) Carapdtos or ticks {ixodes), which mount to thetips of blades of grass, attach themselves to the clothes ofpassersby,_and bury their jaws and heads so deeplv in theflesh that It IS difficult to remove them without leaving theproboscis behind to fret and fester. In sucking one's bloodthey cause no pain; but serious sores, even ulcers often'result. ...These few forms of insect life must forever hinder thesettlement of the valley. . . . Besides there are ants . .innumerable in species and individuals, and of all sizestrom the little red ant of the houses to the mammoth to'-kandera, an inch and a half long. , . . Thelatterbites fiercely, but rarely causes death. Doctor Spruce likensthe pain to a hundred thousand nettles. ... On the Tapajoslives the terrible fire-ant . . . whose sting is likenedto the puncture of a red-hot needle. The saiihas are notcarnivorous, but they make agriculture almost impossible.. . .There are black and yellow wasps. . . . The largehairy caterpillars should be handled with care as theirritation caused by the nettling hairs is sometimes a seriousmatter. Cockroaches are great pests in the villages. Licehnd a congenial home on the unwashed Indians of every^nbe. but particularly the Andean. Jiggers and fleas prefer