Report of Entomologist. 
367 
ekin, and had so filled itself with blood that it was distended to the 
size and shape of a bean. Of course no time was lost before removing 
this thirsty little blood hound. Notwithstanding this, the pain con¬ 
tinued extremely severe, indicating the wound to have been poisoned 
by venom from the insect. To neutralize this poison, it was freely 
bathed with diluted aqua ammonia. She went to the school she was 
teaching and entered upon the day’s exercises, but finding she was 
becoming more unwell, she was constrained to dismiss her school and 
return home. The surface around the wound became vesicated, as 
if from a plaster of cantharides, the whole limb became swollen, some 
slight convulsions occurred, and, for a time, her condition seemed 
rather critical-. The medication, however, which was promptly 
resorted to, appeared salutary ; the next day she was evidently better, 
and thereafter speedily recovered. 
The following is the description of the above insect, drawn up from 
the specimen as it appeared when it was placed in my hands some 
time afterward. 
Dimensions, 0.40 long, 0.25 wide, 0.10 high. Color of the body, gray, tinged with 
blue; anteriorly white, of a tallow-like appearance, here and there with a blackish 
dot or irregular blotch, six of these dots being in a transverse row on the neck. 
Head and legs chestnut brown. It is of an oval form, with a gentle contraction 
forward of the middle and narrower forward of this contraction than it is behind it, 
the ends bluntly rounded, flattened upon the back and also beneath; the back ante¬ 
riorly sloping gently downward toward the head. The surface very finely and 
closely striated transversely. The head (in strictness termed the buckler or shield) is 
coriaceous and glossy, longer than wide, rounded, its sides back of the middle recti¬ 
linear for a short distance, and its anterior end cut off transversely. Its surface is 
punctured, the punctures minute and shallow, more dense on each side, where are 
two impressed lines which at their anterior ends approach each other. The beak is 
short, about a third of the length of the head. The back anteriorly is occupied by 
large irregular ridges and intervening hollows, which are mostly transverse or oblique. 
The middle and hind parts present three parallel, wide and deep longitudinal grooves, 
the middle one less broad, extending farther back, and ending anteriorly in a line 
with the contraction. Crossing the two interspaces between the longitudinal lines 
near their middle, is a transverse groove which is less deeply impressed. On the 
under side two large grooves begin at the throat, and, diverging from each other, 
extend the whole length, and between them posteriorly is a medial groove which 
reaches backward beyond the ends of the lateral ones. 
Eleven years before this case occurred, in September, 1S57, my 
young daughter found a small tick upon her arm, with its head sunk 
into the skin, and causing an intolerable pain, much more severe than 
the sting of a bee or a wasp. She had, just before, picked up a basket 
of chips under the wood-shed, where this had probably got upon her 
clothes. As it was instantly removed, the pain gradually subsided, 
a redness remaining at this point the next day. 
