OF WASHINGTON, VOLUME XVIII, 1916 85 



tionable statements. This was especially true in times far past 

 but continues true, unfortunately, to a considerable extent even 

 yet. 



A superstition long prevailed in Maryland that if a black beetle, 

 that is a cockroach, enters your room, or flies against you, severe 

 illness, or perhaps even death, follows. 1 . As a recent example of 

 evident error in observation I may mention a letter from a 

 physician in New Mexico relating how a boy was bitten on the toe 

 by a Stenopelmalus and, though the toe was immediately incised 

 by a doctor, severe results followed, the boy being in a critical 

 condition for some days and nearly losing his life. While it is 

 very doubtful if the insect was the real cause of the boy's ailment, 

 it is undoubtedly true that at least quite severe mechanical in- 

 jury and pain may be caused by the bite of orthopterous insects. 

 I have myself been bitten in the palm of the hand bv a native 

 Orchelimum, an insect scarcely exceeding an inch in length, so 

 severely as to almost draw blood and similar bites on the finger 

 or back of the hand by some of our larger and more powerful 

 Orthoptera would easily pierce the skin. Davis states that Belo- 

 cephalus bites severely 2 and Bernard records natives sleeping in 

 vineyards in France as being bitten by Ephippigera. 3 Brunner 

 lost a piece of flesh, bitten out by the powerful jaws of Saga,* 

 and Wellman writes that Brachytrupes, a large cricket, can draw 

 blood with its strong jaws. 5 Cockroaches are known to bite off 

 the eyelashes and nibble the toe nails of children in South Amer- 

 ica 6 and in addition they scratch the faces of men, bite the greasy 

 fingers of sleeping children 7 and even eat the toe nails of sailors. 8 

 And not only do roaches bite man but they annoy him in other 

 ways. Thus, Rev. Laock, an early Swedish clergyman in Penn- 

 sylvania, had a roach enter his ear, causing intense pain until 

 drowned out with water like a rat from its hole. 9 There are 

 other similar incidents recorded and the name " earwig" was 

 given the Forficulidae by reason of the widespread belief that 

 they habitually enter the ears of man. 



Orthoptera directly injuring man's person internally is a sub- 

 ject pertaining mostly to their causing disease and the dissemi- 

 nation of the same. This phase of orthopterous economy is 



1 Cowan's Curious Facts, p. 82 (1865). 



2 Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc., vol. xx, p. 305 (1912). 



3 Tech. trait. Vigne (1914). 



4 Burr, Proc. S. Lond. Ent. Soc., 1899, p. (11) (1900). 



5 Ent. News, vol. xix, p. 29 1908). 



; II. II. Smith, In Circular, 2 ser., No. 51, Div. Ent. U. S. Dept. Auric., 

 p. 6 footnote (1902). 



'Catesby, Nat. Hist. Carolina, vol. ii, p. 10 (17 IN.. 

 'Gates, U. S. NavM Mod. Hull., vol. vi, p. 212 214 (1912). 

 9 Cowan's Curious Facts, p. 79 (1865). 



