28 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Jan., '07 



the fact that it has bitten him once. He took it in the house the other 

 day and, being called out of the room, placed it in a waste paper basket 

 for safe keeping, putting a sofa pillow on top of the basket to keep 

 it from escaping. Before Dr. Snow returned Gila had decided to 

 explore a little, and, crawling up the side of the basket, pushed off the 

 sofa pillow and made its escape. Nothing more was seen of it for 

 several hours, when the family, not wanting to have a live Gila 

 monster roaming around the house any longer, began a determined 

 search for it and finally found it snugly hid behind some books in the 

 bookcase. 



The question of whether the Gila monster bite is very serious or 

 not is a much disputed one, but Dr. Snow believes it is not. 



"The effects of a Gila monster bite have been much exaggerated," 

 said Dr. Snow in discussing Gila monsters, and his own pet in particu- 

 lar. "Of course I have not had so very much experience with them, 

 but so far as I could judge I should not call it very dangerous. The 

 one I have in my back yard planted six teeth securely in my thumb, 

 and I suffered no ill effects from it other than from the mere pain of 

 the bite. The prompt application of an antidote which I had on hand, 

 however, may have had something to do with my escape from sickness. 

 A ranchman near where I was bitten seemed much concerned over the 

 accident and told several instances of people having to spend weeks 

 in a hospital as a result of a Gila monster bite." 



.Doings of Societies. 



A meeting of the Entomological Section of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia was held May 24, 1906, Mr. 

 Philip Laurent, Director, presiding. Ten persons present. 



Mr. Ilg exhibited specimens of Anthocharis gcnutia, show- 

 ing variation in size. 



Mr. H. L. Viereck said he was preparing a work on the Hy- 

 meroptera of Connecticut, with an introduction, containing 

 tables for the separation of families, genera and species, with 

 notes on the latter. He thought the work would number not 

 less than five hundred pages. 



Mr. Coxey exhibited a collecting paper for insects, on which 

 was printed blank forms for entering data. 



Mr. Viereck advocated a study of the relation between the 

 weight of insects and their wing expanse, for furthering a 

 knowledge of aerial navigation. Mr. Wenzel said insects usu- 

 ally fly against the wind and their navigation is the reverse 

 of that of a balloon. 



