40 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



dark spot; around this spot there frequently appears a IjiiUous ves- 

 icle about the size of a ten-cent piece, and filled with a dark gru- 

 mous fluid; a small ulcer forms underneath the vesicle, the necrotic 

 area being generally limited to the central part, while the surround- 

 ing tissues are more or less swollen and somewhat painful. In a few 

 days, with rest and proper care, the swelling subsides, and in a week 

 all traces of the cellulitis are usually gone. In some of the cases 

 no vesicle forms at the point of injury, the formation probably de- 

 pending on the constitutional vitality of the individual or the 

 amount of poison introduced." The explanation of the severity 

 of the wound suggested by Dr. Davidson, and in which the writer 

 fully concurs with him, is not that the insect introduces any spe- 

 cific poison of its own, but that the poison introduced is probably 

 accidental and contains the ordinary putrefactive germs which may 

 adhere to its proboscis. Dr. Davidson's treatment was corrosive 

 sublimate — 1 to 500 or 1 to 1,000 — locally applied to the wound, 

 keeping the necrotic part bathed in the solution. The results have 

 in all cases been favorable. Uliler gives the distribution of R. 

 higuttatus as Arizona, Texas, Panama, Para, Cuba, Louisiana, West 

 Virginia, and California. After a careful study of the material 

 in the United States !N^ational Museum, Mr. Heidemann has de- 

 cided that the specimens of Basatiis from the southeastern part 

 of the country are in reality Say's R. higuttatus, while those from 

 the Southwestern States belong to a distinct species answering more 

 fully, with slight exceptions, to the description of Stal's Rasatus 

 thoracicus. The writer has recently received a large series of R. 

 tlioracicus from Mr. H. Brown, of Tucson, Arizona, and had a dis- 

 agreeable experience wath the same species in April, 1898, at San 

 Jose de Guaymas, in the State of Sonora, Mexico. He had not 

 seen the insect alive before, and was sitting at the supper table with 

 his host — a ranchero of cosmopolitan language. One of the bugs, 

 attracted by the light, flew in with a buzz and flopped doM'n on 

 the table. The writer's entomological instinct led him to reach 

 out for it, and was warned by his host in the remarkable sentence 

 comprising words derived from three distinct languages: " Guar- 

 dez, guardez! Zat animalito sting like ze dev! " But it was too 

 late; the writer had been stung on the forefinger, with painful 

 results. Fortunately, however, the insect's beak must have been 

 clean, and no great swelling or long inconvenience ensued. 



Perhaps the best known of any of the species mentioned in 

 our list is the blood-sucking cone-nose (ConorJiinus sanguisugus). 

 This ferocious insect belongs to a genus which has several repre- 

 sentatives in the United States, all, however, confined to the South 

 or West. C. ruhro-fasciatus and C. variegatus, as well as C. san- 



