SUMMER NUMBER 13 
NEW THYSANOPTERA FROM FLORIDA—VII 
J. R. WATSON 
29. Haplothrips orlando Wats. & Osborn. 
The original type of this insect (Florida Buggist, Vol. II, No. 4, p. 116) 
is a male. We now have two females and three additional males. These 
were collected by beating mostly ‘oak-runners” (Quercus pumuli) in the 
“flat woods” east of Gainesville, August 9. This is evidently a flat woods 
insect, as the ecological situation at the type locality near Orlando was 
similar. 
Female. Measurements: Total length 1.8 mm.; head, length .21 mm, 
width .19 mm.; prothorax, length .18, breadth .832 mm.; abdomen, width 
.44 mm.; tube, length .145, width at base .055, at apex .04 mm.; antennae, 
sepment 1, 40; 2, 53; 3, 67; 4, 62; 5, 538; 6, 50; 7, 49; 8, 48 microns; total, 
40 mm. Color identical with that of the male; considerably smaller. Fore 
femora are but slightly enlarged. Tarsal tooth much smaller, in one 2 
entirely absent. A brown area at the extreme base of the wings. The 
number of interlocated hairs varies from 15 to 25, usually about 20. Type 
in the author’s collection. 
Male. The new males are considerably larger than the type, averaging 
2.25 mm. in length. In some of them the tarsal tooth is scarcely half as 
large as in the type, and no larger than that of one female. 
45. Haplothrips statices (Haliday). 
Gainesville, Fla., July 10, sweeping in short grass along stream. In some 
of these specimens, as also in some the writer has from Massachusetts and 
Oregon, post-ocular bristles are present. In the original description and 
in Moulton’s key they are said to be absent. 
A CASE OF SERIOUS SICKNESS DUE TO THE 
PUSS MOTH CATERPILLAR 
The editor recently received from Dr. H. D. Venters of the 
State Board of Health a caterpillar of the puss moth with the 
statement that ‘‘a boy almost died” from the effects of contact 
with the larva “which poisoned him similar to the bite of a 
rattlesnake’. 
Different individuals react very differently to the poison of 
various insects. The editor has frequently been “stung’’ by these 
larvae which are not uncommon in citrus groves. On him the 
effects were little more serious than those resulting from contact 
with a nettle or our common pretty “Horse Nettle’ (Solanum 
sp.). Can it be that different specimens of the insect also vary 
