Report of tee State Entomologist. Ill 



and the swelling and irritation whicli result from it, will sometimes 

 last a week. In very weak and irritaT)le constitutions it may even 

 prove fatal " {Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Fhila., for Sept., 1885, p. 404). In 

 consideration of its severe sting. Dr. LeConte, believing it to be an 

 undescribed species, gave it the appropriate name of ReAuviui^ pungem. 

 The following is his description of the species : 



Reduvius ptjngexs. Black, shining, wings opaque. Head a little 

 hairy, antenna3 yellowish-brown, slightly hairy, first joint shorter 

 than the head, second, fourth and fifth much longer, sub-equal, third 

 very small. Thorax slightly margined, strongly constricted in the 

 middle, the anterior portion rounded and longitudinally sulcate, the 

 posterior portion transverse. First pair of legs hairy on the under 

 side, as are the thighs also of the second pair, but the tibise and tarsi 

 of the hinder legs all over. Length 0.8 of an inch. 



Stinging by others of the Reduviidae. 



There are several other sj)ecies of the family Eedumidae which 

 have similar habits to the above. Although usually predaceous 

 upon other insects, and not voluntarily, except with a few exceptions 

 or in rare instances, attacking man, yet it is by no means safe to 

 handle them incautiously. Under the excitement of restraint, they 

 would not hesitate to use their powerful beak as a weapon of defense, 

 burying it deeply in the flesh, and at the same time injecting a drop 

 of a poisonous secretion which materially adds to the pain of the 

 wound inflicted. 



Melanolestes abdominalis (Her.-Sch.) — a congener of M. pirates, is 

 said by Glover, if handled roughly, to be caj)able of inflicting a 

 severe wound. Its ordinary habitat is beneath dead ^ 



logs, moss, and decaying vegetable material, where it 

 lies in wait for other insects, seizing them with its strong 

 fore-legs and sucking their juices. Figure 45, after 

 Glover, represents the general appearance of the in- 

 sect. Its general color is red, with the tip of its body 

 black. Stal and some other authors have regarded it ^^ — me- 



as identical with M. pirates, from the general resem- lanolestes ab- 



blance of the two forms and their often occiirring in doiviinalis. (Af- 



ter Glover.) 

 company under the same stone. Mr. Uhler [loc. cit.), 



however, does not deem the evidence sufficient for uniting them as 

 one species. 



Of Conorhinus sanguisugus LeConte (shown in Figure 46), which has 

 been styled the " big bed-bug," and by translation of its scientific 

 name, the "blood-sucking cone-nose," it is narrated that a gentle- 

 man in Alton, 111., was once bitten by it in three places in his arm, 

 and the inflammation that resulted was so severe that the use of the 



