1898 * ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 219 



Don't have the boxes come in contact at any point. An inch 

 and a half space between the boxes should be the minimum 

 allowable. If the specimens are many and the box large, send 

 by express. The outer box may be card-board. When send- 

 ing Coleoptra with heavy bodies or large moths, always secure 

 the body by a wisp of cotton, which should be put on as follows : 

 Take a wisp the required length and tease it out about one-half 

 inch in width, run the pin through one end and give it a couple 

 of turns around the pin so that it holds tightly and lies close to 

 the place where the pin issues from the thorax, then bring it 

 around the end of the abdomen and fasten to the pin above by a 

 couple of turns. If the bodies are very large, as in the Sphinges, 

 a pin should be placed on either side of the abdomen to prevent 

 them swinging around on the pin. Always remember if one 

 becomes loose it ruins many, and " one fine, faultless specimen is 

 worth no end of trash." Neuroptra, Odonata should always 

 have a bristle passed through the abdomen into the thorax 

 when fresh, otherwise they are almost always broken off in 

 transportation. Always put your name and address in the inner 

 box. (Reprinted in part from vol. 3, p. 41. 



Bitten by a foreign insect. — A trolley conductor may lose a foot as 

 a result. John Gifford is confined to his home, in Stockton, with a very 

 badly swollen foot, the result of a bite of a strange insect. Several days 

 ago a number of foreign laborers occupied a trolley car of which Gifford 

 was conductor. After they left, he says, he felt an itching on his foot. 

 He found a small insect, which, one of the passengers said, was an Italian 

 moth, which the people of Italy hold in great dread. No attention was 

 at first paid to the bite until Gifford's foot became swollen as large as his 

 head. Dr. Jerome Artz says the bite is a peculiar one, and fears there 

 may be serious results. — Newspaper. 



One Summer morning I was awakened by the excited buzz of a large 

 flesh-fly. On opening my eyes I was surprised to see her coursing madly 

 about the room pursued by two houseflies. She circled about the room 

 several times with the houseflies close behind her ; but when she finally 

 alighted upon the window-pane they left her. This scene was enacted 

 several times and thus had the appearance of a sport voluntarily indulged 

 in on the part of the blow-fly. 



Some time after some honey-bees, whose hive had been disturbed, 

 found their way into our rooms and to my surprise were set upon in the 

 same manner by the houseflies and driven to precipitate flight. Can any- 

 one explain this? — Frederick Knab, Chicopee, Mass. 



