Note 82 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 3)

Wood-lice (Acarus Americanus Linn.) abound here, and are more plentiful than on any part of the journey. Scarcely any one of us sat down but a whole army of them crept upon his clothes. They caused us as much inconvenience as the gnats, during the last night, and the short time we stayed here. Their bite is very disagreeable, and they would prove very dangerous, if any one of them should creep into a man’s ear, from whence it is difficult to extract them. There are examples of people whose ears were swelled to the size of the fist, on account of one of these insects creeping into them, and biting them. More is said about them in the description which I have given to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences82.