Envenomation by the sac spider Chiracanthium mildei.

A 19-year-old man was abruptly awakened during the night by the painful bite of a female sac spider, later identified as Chiracanthium mildei. An erythematous urticarial plaque formed immediately. Later, punctate macules appeared, and the bite site became indurated. The clinical response was similar to those reported following bites by Chiracanthium spiders in Japan, Australia, Europe, Massachusetts, Georgia, Indiana, California, and Hawaii. The necrotic lesions associated with some of those bites did not occur in this case. This is the first reported case of C. mildei bite in Connecticut.

Intracranial myiasis by Hypoderma bovis (Linnaeus) in a horse.

Acute neurologic disease associated with intracranial migration of a first instar larva of a warble fly, Hypoderma bovis (Linnaeus), was observed in a 14-year-old Quarter Horse gelding in western Montana. The disease was characterized by incoordination of gait, circling to the left, head tilt to the right, partial paralysis of the right side of the face, and impaired vision in the right eye. Two and one-half hours after it was first noticed sick, the horse collapsed and was euthanized. Massive hemorrhage unaccompanied by necrosis or significant cellular response was present in the right side of the midbrain and pons.

Nosema parkeri sp. n., a microsporidan from the argasid tick, Ornithodoros parkeri Cooley.

Nosema parkeri sp. n. is described from nymphs and adults of the argasid tick, Ornithodoros parkeri Cooley, from a laboratory colony. Schizogonic and sporogonic stages are described from various tick tissues. Spores are binucleate, measuring 3.2 (3-4) x 1.9 (1.8-2.5) micronm. Transmission is transovarial and transstadial. The parasite does not appear to affect adversely the development or reproduction of the tick. Dermacentor andersoni Stiles was experimentally infected. Attempts to infect Swiss mice by tick feeding or by injection of infected tick suspensions were unsuccessful. The microsporidan differs in structure from Encephalitozoon ixodis Weiser) and Nosema slovaca Weiser & Rehácek, the only other microsporidans known from ticks.

Trypanosomes in horse flies and deer flies in central New York State.

Tabanids were collected during 2 consecutive summers from 3 counties in New York using a canopy trap and insect net. Twenty-seven per cent of all fly specimens (N equals 641) representing 69% of the species collected (N equals 36) were infected with flagellates. Tabanid intestines harbored amastigote, choanomastigote, and epimastigote forms. Epimastigotes were frequently found, and trypomastigotes and choanomastigotes rarely found in cultures of tabanid intestinal flagellates. Epimastigote and trypomastigote forms closely resembled Trypanosoma theileri-like trypanosomes reported from ruminants.