Dec., '08] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 47! 



iptera Heteroptera, the true bugs. The speaker has had person- 

 al experience of a painful nature with at least two species of 

 these insects; the first of which was a pair of Notonectidae, 

 or back swimming bugs. Having scooped up a pair of them 

 in the hollow of my hand, on attempting to grasp them, one 

 of the insects inserted its beak into the ball of my thumb. 

 There was an immediate burning pain in the member, which 

 began quickly to swell ; this pain and swelling extending to 

 the elbow in a short time. The soreness remained for several 

 days and was much more severe than the result of any bee 

 sting I ever received. The other insect was a species of as- 

 sassin bug (family Reduviidae), which bit me between the 

 fingers and caused swelling and pain to no mean extent. There 

 are many other species which are known to inflict painful and 

 sometimes dangerous bites ; among which may be mentioned 

 Conorhinus sangitisuga, sometimes known as the big bed bug. 

 It is a southern species and is quite troublesome at times. Also, 

 Rasalnis bit/ii flat its, a western species, said to inflict a severe 

 wound, and two species which abound in Pennsylvania are 

 Melanolestes picipcs and Opsccoctus pcrsonatns. In fact all 

 the bugs of the family Reduviidae should be handled with 

 the utmost care. There is no doubt in the mind of the speaker, 

 that the giant water bugs, Belostoma aincricana and Benacus 

 griseus, are capable of inflicting severe bites, as they are known 

 to be able to kill small fish almost instantly by means of the 

 beak. However, we must admit that no report of their hav- 

 ing bitten any one has come to our notice. 



Many of us will no doubt recollect the kissing bug scare 

 which swept over the country some few years back; of the 

 insects reported as having done the kissing, fully 75 per cent, 

 were true bugs which belonged to the family spoken of above. 



Another famous hoax of childhood was the "ear wig" ; this 

 affectionate insect, which by the way carries a pair of forceps 

 at the end of its tail, was supposed to crawl into the ear of a 

 sleeping person where it remained to torture him till "king-, 

 dom come." Of course, the story is a myth, although insects 

 do occasionally enter people's ears accidentally and are a source 



