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A 27-year-old woman presented with severe pruritus for a few weeks and diffuse urticarial erythema with pinhead-sized papules over the entire body. The skin lesions occurred directly after a stay in her secondary residence in London. The medical history, clinical picture and histological feature of an arthropod reaction in the skin biopsy, coupled with patient offering a bed bug specimen as evidence, secured the diagnosis of a cimicosis.

In April 1996 an attack of black flies (Diptera, Simuliidae) to horses was observed in the region of Basle, Switzerland. Females of Simulium erythrocephalum and Simulium ornatum were involved in this attack, part of them had taken a blood meal. For S. ornatum this is the first record in Switzerland that this species takes blood meals on horses.

The larvae of green lacewings (Chrysopidae) may occasionally attack man as temporary ectoparasites, causing papular reactions similar to those produced by gnat bites.