1891.] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 55 



INOCULATED WITH ELECTRICITY. Philadelphia, Dec. 30. Physicians 

 and medical students have been studying with great interest a case with- 

 out a parallel, so far as known. Little Mamie Lurker, walking on Girard 

 Avenue a few days ago with her aunt, suddenly stopped, and, putting up 

 her hands to her face, screamed, "I am shot." The aunt seized the 

 child's hands, and immediately staggered back as if she had received an 

 electric shock. A crowd speedily gathered, and a man crushed with his 

 foot a peculiar bright-hued bug, bottle-shaped and hard-shelled, which, 

 falling from a wire overhead, had dropped on the girl's face and stung her. 



A bright crimson spot on Mamie's cheek showed where the bug had 

 made the wound, and evidently inoculated her with the electricity with 

 which it was charged by being in contact with the wire. Little would 

 have been thought of the accident had it not been for the peculiar symp- 

 toms of the girl, who was nervous and uneasy, and whose grasp sent an 

 indefinable tingling sensation to the hands of everybody who touched her. 



Dr. De Beust diagnosed the case as bullia, or vascular poisoning, and 

 administered the remedies usual in cases of that kind. To his astonish- 

 ment, however, the bright-hued sore on the cheek was followed by other 

 bright-hued eruptions on every part of the body, each one emitting the 

 same peculiar tingling sensation when touched. In his opinion the bug 

 was of a Brazilian species brought to this country in the year of the cen- 

 tennial. The insect in itself is not known to be poisonous, and is distin- 

 guished for its peculiar bottle-shaped appearance. 



The patient is now considered out of danger, after unremitting attention 

 on the part of the physician, but still suffers from the inoculated electric 

 bite. 



OUR collector (NEWS) spent a week under the electric lights before he 

 succeeded in getting a specimen. This was sent to the Determiner who 

 has charge of the Department of Identification of Insects; he recognized 

 the species as Electricia tomfoolery ensis De Bust. 



Identification of Insects (Jmagos) for Siibscribers. 



Specimens will be named under the following conditions: ist, The number of speci- 

 mens to be unlimited for each sending ; 2d, The sender to pay all expenses of transporta- 

 tion and the insects to become the property of the American Entomological Society ; 

 3d, Each specimen must have a number attached so that the identification may be an- 

 nounced accordingly. Twelve names, if possible, will appear in each issue of NEWS, 

 according to number. Address packages to ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS, Academy Natural 

 Sciences, Logan Square, Philadelphia, Pa. ^/ 



V 



A. G. WEEKS. i, Junonia orithya; 2, Byblia ilithyia; 3, Ergolis art- 

 adne; 4, Ixias marianne 9 ; 5, Junonia lemonias} 7, Diadema misippus 

 9; 8, Eupiaea core; 9, Pyrrhogyra tif>Iia; n, Eunica moninia; 12, Da- 

 nais gi/ippnx, var. cleophile; 13, Danais archippus; 14, Papilio aristolo- \J 

 chice; 15, Callidryas pomona; 16, Callidryas pomona; 17, Callidryas 

 pomona; 18, Callidryas pomona; 19, Idniais sp. $\ 20, Diadem a misip- 

 pus $\ 21, Callidryas pyranthe; 22, Idmais sp. $; 23, Junonia tr/ione, 

 var. hierta; 24, Pieris mesentina; 26, Diadema misippus 9- 



