474 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [May, 



with the lips, as a mark of aflFection, reverence, submission or 

 forgiveness." Now, have we bugs, except, perhaps, Phthi- 

 rhis ing7ii7ialis, that seek a particular part or organ of the 

 body for attack ? Is it a fact that Melanolestes picipes or Opsi- 

 ccetus personahis salute with the lips (and on the lip), as a 

 mark of affection, reverence, submission or forgiveness. I^ast 

 Summer a gentlemen staying at a sea-shore hotel was bitten 

 on the piazza, but unfortunately the insect escaped and could 

 not be identified. Was this a piazza bug ? We feel sure that 

 there is no authentic case of a person having been bitten on the 

 lip by either of the bugs mentioned, and if it were so it would 

 only be by the merest accident that the insect happened to be 

 on the lip. A characteristic of the Washington yarn was that 

 no pain was felt from the bites. If anyone is inquisitive, let 

 him handle one of these bugs, and he wont be apprised of the 

 effect twelve hours later by finding his hand swollen. There 

 never was au}^ such thing as a "kissing bug," and we hope 

 scientific entomologists will not countenance such arrant non- 

 sense ; the name should sink into oblivion. 



" Residents of Evanston, 111., are in terror of a Mexican nose bug, which 

 has escaped. It is equipped with strong pincers and a beak. Its mode 

 of procedure is to fasten itself to the nose of a victim and then to insert 

 its beak for a copious draught of blood. It cannot be detached without 

 tearing out a piece of the flesh. Death sometimes follows, as the pincers 

 are poisonous. " 



The above clipping is from the Philadelphia Public Lcdi^ei 

 of April 14th, and shows where we are drifting. It is the 

 more dangerous kind of "hum-bug," as it is founded on a 

 slight basis of fact. The story given is probably perverted 

 from statements going the rounds of the newspapers in regard 

 to the Texas or Mexican bed-bug, or, as the article stated, the 

 " blood sucking cone-nose." " It is only a step from the .sub- 

 lime to the ridiculous." Wc have the " ki.ssing bug," " the 

 Mexican no.se-bug," the " strangling bug," and may exj^ct a 

 goodly crop of other hum-bugs during the Summer. 



Correction. — In the News for February, igcw, page 376, and for 

 March, 1900, page 407, in the fine type imder the heading " Kntoniulogi- 

 cal Literature, line 7, insert "new" before " North American forms." 



