lS93-] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 219 



unexpectedly received near the point of one of his fingers what 

 was supposed to be a sting, and severely painful, the blood flowed 

 freely, and there was a deep transverse cut about three-eights of 

 an inch in length. This seemed a rather curious sting. An ex- 

 amination, with judicious care, showed that the bee was really a 

 drone, and that its other end possessed a weapon mote formidable 

 than any sting — a long, sharp, sickle-shaped pair of mandibles 

 of horny chitin. Whether it is the habit of Xylocopa to use the 

 jaws as an offensive and defensive weapon, or whether the oc- 

 currence mentioned was accidental, can only be known by ex- 

 perimenting, which the writer does not propose to institute per- 

 sonally — an occasional sting is not greatly regarded, but he does 

 not care to be bit. 



Hypoderma. — An imago of a species of this genus is the parent 

 of the well-known warble which is frequently seen on the backs 

 of cattle. It is said the eggs are conveyed into the mouths of 

 cattle when licking themselves, where, soon hatching out in the 

 fauces and throat, the larvae penetrate through the various tissues 

 till they reach the skin of the back, where they remain till fully 

 grown, escaping to the ground for pupation through the ulcerated 

 tumors they occasion. Several years ago I saw, professionally, 

 a boy, six years of age, who had been suffering for some months 

 from the glands on one side of his neck being swollen and a foetid 

 ulceration around the back teeth of the lower jaw of the same 

 side. Three months' treatment was of no avail, and the end 

 seemed near; one day a white object, which was seen to move, 

 was observed in the ulcer at the root of the tongue, which, on 

 being carefully extracted, proved to be a large grub, which, from 

 having frequently seen them, I recognized as a full grown larva 

 of Hypoderma. It was of the usual tawny color, about half an 

 inch long when contracted, about one-third that thickness and 

 quite lively. The case ended fatally. This boy had been on a 

 dairy farm in Illinois the previous fall, where probably the &%^ 

 was in some way taken into his mouth, and the larva found be- 

 tween the base of the tongue and the jaw suitable tissue in which 

 to develop, coming to maturity at the same time with those bred 

 in cattle. 



Prof. Packard is said to have been offered the Hope professorship of 

 Zoology at Oxford, England, to succeed the late Prof Westwood, but 

 declined, as he did not wish to leave America. 



