108 J. B. CLELAND. 
poisoned rats, I think it is quite possible that the bues 
found had merely taken advantage of the cover offered by 
the dead carease to hide themselves. The bug, I presume, 
after having fed, will at once seek cover. It will not remain 
on or near the host that it has bitten if any movement is 
made by such host. In the case of trapped rats, however, 
the bugs might come out and perhaps feed on the body when 
warm, and then, finding no movement, hide themselves in 
its neighbourhood or between the flexures of the joints, 
and thus be removed with the rats when found by the rat- 
catchers later; or, having fed elsewhere, the bugs may 
merely take shelter on the dead or cold carcase as they 
might in any other suitable situation. I think, therefore, 
that it still remains to be proved that rats can be respon- 
sible for the transference of bed bugs from one house to 
another. 
PrEpicuLinps.—Harvey Johnston! has recorded Polyplax 
spinulosus Burm. for EF. rattus and E. norvegicus from Syd- — 
ney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Neumann? has described an- 
other species, Hematopinus (Polyplax) bidentatus, as 
from Mus rattus, ‘‘au lac Torrens, dans 1’ Australie sud.’” 
(Rothschild Collection). This reference to the introduced 
E. rattus, suggesting its occurrence in the neighbourhood 
of the depression, sometimes containing salt-water, known 
as ‘‘Lake Torrens,’’ and situated to the north of Port 
Augusta in the interior of South Australia, aroused my in- 
terest. The arid nature of the country, far from the haunts 
of man, suggested some mistake. I made enquiries through 
Dr. Borthwick, Medical Officer of Health for Adelaide, 
which seem to show an error, by translation, in locality 
and an error in the host. Through Professor Stirling, then 
Director of the South Australian Museum, Dr. Borthwick 
2 Johnston, Rep. Govt. Bur. of Microbiology, N.S.W., 1909 (1910), 
p. 30. 
2 Neumann, Arch. de Parasitologie, XIII., 1909, p. 497. 
