Page:Provincial geographies of India (Volume 4).djvu/114

Insects. Insect life is prodigious and almost spoils an otherwise exquisite land. Mosquitoes, anopheles and others, are endemic and ubiquitous, of great size and ferocity. In the Irrawaddy Delta where, perhaps, they are most abundant, cattle have to be kept under mosquito nets; and European houses are "closed at sunset with mosquito-proof shutters of fine wire gauze." Horseflies are exceedingly troublesome. They seem to have impressed Father Sangermano even more than mosquitoes. Gigantic spiders festoon the forests with their webs and haunt the houses of men; some of extravagantly hideous aspect. Scorpions of many species are common. Cicadas fill the, valleys with strident sound. White ants (so called) are universal in their season, destructive of books and furniture and house posts in one stage of their progress, vastly annoying in another stage when they fly in myriads and deposit clouds of wings and masses of pulpy bodies. True ants of many kinds and of interesting habits, including "the notorious and vicious red ant," flourish in great numbers. Beetles, of many species, some of brilliant colouring, some of amazing size, are as the sands of the sea for multitude. Fireflies light up the banks of creeks, among the few bright spots in the insect world. Houseflies, gnats, sand-flies, locusts, cockroaches, crickets, and innumerable other pests, fly or creep, bite or sting, making life almost intolerable, especially in the early rains. The Order Rhynchota is widely diffused. One green little flying monster of this Order, probably Nezara viridula, has a peculiarly disgusting and persistent odour which clings to all that it touches and defies the perfumes of Araby. Another unmitigated nuisance is the mole cricket (Gryllotalpa Africana) which swarms out of the ground in thousands and combines all the unpleasing habits of flying, crawling and biting. Like the hamadryad it charges unprovoked. It climbs to embarrassing heights and to wearers of skirts is a more legitimate cause of terror than a mouse.