1899] 205 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 



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Philadelphia, Pa., September, 1899. 

 LDITORIAL. 



During the past summer the newspapers of the Atlantic 

 coast have been exploiting numerous instances of individuals . 

 being attacked or ^'kissed" by an insect which, in conse- 

 quence of its asserted habit of swelling the lips of its human 

 victims by its bite or sting, received the fatuous name of 

 " kissing bug." Originating in the neighborhood of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, the report spread from newspaper to newspaper 

 and with the lay people became a veritable midsummer mad- 

 ness. The Unit«d States Department of Agriculture identified 

 the insect as Melanolestes picipes, a hemipter of previously 

 good character, which fact went a great way in making ento- 

 mologists in general sceptical as to the whole story, and we 

 are glad to record that the much maligned Melanolestes has 

 proven an alibi, as far as the evidence presented at the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia goes. Out of the 

 many specimens brought to the Academy as the ^ 'kissing bug" 

 (many of which had been pronounced the true thing by medi- 

 cal men) *u)< one was Melanolestes picipes. To be sure the lat- 

 ter has a Latin name which might cast suspicion on any bug, 

 and many of his relatives have a bad reputation, but by stick- 

 ing to his old time habits of dwelling in secluded spots it has 

 come out of the fray with a spotless reputation. The next 

 time thenewspapei-s wish to make a martyr let them steer shy 



