204 



ing a special feature. It is to be issued in 12 parts, eacla contaiuing 8 

 plates and about 14:4= x^ages of text. The price is 85 per part. 



Dr. Packard's Entomology for Beginners appeared in September. 

 It is a condensed treatise of about 350 images with nearly 300 figures, 

 and is entitled "Entomology for Beginners, for the use of young folks, 

 fruit-growers, farmers, and gardeners, by A. S. Packard, M. D., Ph. 

 D., New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1888." The price is $1.75. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO THE LITERATURE OF FATAL SPIDER BITES. 



The evidence for and against the possibility of a fatal bite from auy 

 of our common spiders is sufficiently confusing. We have, on the one 

 hand, a wide spread impression among people at large that such fatal 

 bites are frequent and a large number of poorly-authenticated news- 

 paper records of cases. On the other hand, we have a general incredul- 



FiG. 46.—Latrodectus mactans : a, adult terualo; 6, c, d, e,/, g, abdomen of different stages and va- 

 rieties, upper side; /(, under side oi (j ; i, adult male, a, e, f. g, h, and i enlarged twice, c and d three 

 times, b four times (original). 



ity among entomologists and arachnologists, who require absolute proof 

 before accepting what seems probably untrue, judged from the statements 

 of naturalists who have allowed themselves to be bitten without bad re- 

 sults, not ouly by many different spiders, but by the very species said 

 to be venomous. 



