BACKGROUND Heel prick blood sampling is a commonly performed and painful procedure in the newborn infant. Use of a topical local anaesthetic does not relieve this pain. A 4% w/w amethocaine gel (Ametop) reduces the pain of venepuncture in the newborn but has not been tried with heel pricks. AIM To investigate the effect of topical amethocaine gel on the pain of heel prick in the newborn infan...

New species of lance lacewings, Spilosmylus spilopteryxsp. n. and Spilosmylus tephrodestigmasp. n., are described from the Philippines and compared with congeners. Both species are characterised by a distinctive wing pattern, which in the case of Spilosmylus spilopteryxsp. n. is relatively spectacular among lacewings. An identification key to the species of Spilosmylus Kolbe known from the Phil...