694 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVI. 



No. XLV.— NOTE ON THE SUPPOSED EFFECTS OF THE BITE 

 OF A PENTATOMID BUG {HALTS DENTATUS). 



I am forwarding to yon the enclosed letter from Mr. Leverin^ of 

 Secunderabad, Deccan, and an insect. Could you kindly tell me its name 

 and whether it is poisonous ? 



Two outstanding examples of this can be cited from this part of India, 

 the Jerimundlam spider and the green Avhip snake, both being universally 

 considered as deadly poisonous, yet both are harmless. The only snake I 

 have ever had brought to me by an Indian and considered harmless was a 

 young Russell's Viper ! 



I am sending you an insect which I found and killed in my bungalow, 

 several days ago. I have found them about my rooms a number of times. 

 I have never heard them called by any other name than the very un- 

 scientific one of " Mother Bags." 



We have had this experience with them. Several years ago we had a 

 teacher named Nathaniel, who lived on the school compound near ours. 

 He came over one evening bringing one of these insects, which he had 

 killed, and which he said had stung him. His physical condition was 

 somewhat peculiar ; his lower lip was swollen and hanging down. The 

 lobes of his ears were somewhat swollen. About the upper portion of 

 his body, on the front there were several " welts " rather large, and 

 about two inches long. He was suffering a good deal. If I remember 

 correctly his heart action was somewhat reduced. My wife oave him a 

 stimulant, and he recovered in a short time. 



Sometime after, one evening he and his wife came in with another of these 

 insects. That time she had been stung. She was in rather a bad condition, 

 and my wife, who, as you know, is a doctor, feared a collapse. She had on 

 the upper portion of her body marks very similar to those on her husband. 

 Under a stimulant she revived. 



Can you tell what the insect is and if it is really dangerous ^ Within 

 four or five years there have been two deaths in our neighbourhood from the 

 sting of some sort of insect. One was the son of a neighbour, a boy of about 

 ten years. He was stung in the corner of the eye some time on a Saturday 

 evening and died about noon on Monday. He was under the care of two 

 well qualified doctors who both said that death was due to the stino-. 

 (Dr. Jivanji and Mr. Yelliah, an Assistant Surgeon, now dead, but then 

 connected with the Civil Hospital.) (I did not talk with either of the phy- 

 sicians about the case, bvit was about the house and did talk with the 

 parents.) The insect that stung this child was not seen, but was supposed 

 to have been one of this species. 



The other death was that of a smaller child and the friends said it was 

 stung by one of these insects. 



I should like to know whether the insect is really dangerous, or whether 

 these cases that occurred on our compound, and seemed to be genuine stino^s 

 of this insect, were probably due to some other cause. I have been misled 

 so many times in India that I am a little sceptical. 



Lallagxtda, Deccan, E. H. HUNT. 



22w(^ Novemhei- 1918. 



[The Bug- is a common species Halys dentatus, Fabr., belcngiu^- to the 

 Pentatomidfe. 



There is very little known about the habits and life histories of these bugs, but 

 in an allied family it has been recorded by Lefroy that" some of these species 

 have a painful bite,, due to the injection of blind at the moment of puncture". — 

 Eds.] 



