38 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nate in our valleys beneath stones and rubbish in loamy soils." 

 Specimens in Washington collections show the following localities 

 for M. ahdominalis : Baltimore, Md. ; Washington, D. C; Wil- 

 mington, Del.; New Jersey; Long Island; Fort Bliss, Texas; 

 Louisiana; and Keokuk, Iowa; and for M. picipes, Washington, 

 D, C; Roslyn, Va.; Baltimore, Md.; Derby, Conn.; Long Island; 

 a series labeled ISTew Jersey; Wilmington, Del.; Keokuk, Iowa; 

 Cleveland and Cincinnati, Ohio; Louisiana; Jackson, Miss.; Bar- 

 ton County, Mo.; Fort Bliss, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Cres- 

 cent City, Fla.; Holland, S. C. 



This insect has been mentioned several times in entomological 

 literature. The first reference to its bite probably was made by 

 Townend Glover in the Annual Report of the Commissioner of 

 Agriculture for 1875 (page 130). In Maryland, he states, M. 

 picipes is found under stones, moss, logs of wood, etc., and is ca- 

 pable of inflicting a severe wound with its rostrum or piercer. In 

 1888 Dr. Lintner, in his Fourth Report as State Entomologist of 

 New York (page 110), quotes from a correspondent in Natchez, 

 Miss., concerning this insect: " I send a specimen of a fly not known 

 to us here. A few days ago it punctured the finger of my wife, in- 

 flicting a painful sting. The swelling was rapid, and for several 

 days the wound was quite annoying." Until recent years this 

 insect has not been known to the writer as occurring in houses 

 with any degree of frequency. A May, 1895, however, I re- 

 ceived a specimen from an esteemed correspondent — Dr. J. M. 

 Shaffer, of Keokuk, Iowa — together with a letter written on May 

 7th, in which the statement was made that four specimens flew 

 into his window the night before. The insect, therefore, is at- 

 tracted to light or is becoming attracted to light,- is a night-flier, 

 and enters houses through open windows. Among the several cases 

 coming under the writer's observation of bites by this insect, one 

 has been reported by the well-known entomologist Mr. Charles 

 Dury, of Cincinnati, Ohio, in which this species (M. picipes) bit a 

 man on the back of the hand, making a bad sore. In another case,, 

 where the insect was brought for our determination and proved 

 to be this species, the bite was upon the cheek, and the swelling 

 was said to be great, but with little pain. In a third case, occur- 

 ring at Holland, S. C, the symptoms were more serious. The 

 patient was bitten upon the end of the middle finger, and stated 

 that the first paroxysm of pain was about like that resulting from 

 a hornet or a bee sting, but almost immediately it grew ten times 

 more painful, with a feeling of weakness followed by vomiting. 

 The pain was felt to shoot up the arm to the under jaw, and the 

 sickness lasted for a number of days. A fourth case, at Fort Bliss. 



