MALIGNANT INSECTS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 2670, 22 December 1928, Page 7

MALIGNANT INSECTS.

IN JUNGLES OF BOLIVIA. In the jungle along the River Beni, in Bolivia, are found some of the most malignant blood-sucking insects in the world. Here lives the apasana, a bird-eat-ing spider, attaining a length of from eight to ten inches, whose poisonous bite is sometimes fatal. It has a body resembling a ball of wool with black hairs on its body and red ones on its legs. Its eyes are black and quick-moving, with a most malevolent expression. It is very active and jumps about two feet at a single bound. The palo santo ant, a fire ant, which lives in hollow-stemmed trees, is common here. A touch on this tree brings down a shower of the ants, whose bites feel like red-hot coals, the sting lasting for hours. Other plagues are the zaputama, an almost invisible insect which lies in the grass, bites the legs of men, and causes an almost intolerable itching; the guanaco, a bug which lives in the sand and whose bite is usually fatal; the baregui, a sand fly with a painful sting; sweat bees, which, suck the perspiration from the hair; the anopheles, or malaria-carry-ing mosquito, and wasps ticks and jiggers.