9 o 



The Book of Bugs. 



fume and boasts the proud distinction of being the 

 costliest bug in America. In some years the grain- 

 growers of the Middle West have been out of pocket as 

 much as a hundred million dollars on account of it. Even 

 so, I think its near relation costs more in blood and mental 

 anguish. The name of " Norfolk-Howard '' I will explain 

 later in the chapter on Cockroaches. I deem it a very 

 genteel appellation, but the prize for quaintness I think 

 attaches to " B flat." I was puzzled about the origin of 

 this until I came to write it down as one would in music- 

 " Bfr." Then I understood. Not only does the italic b 

 stand for flat, which the insect certainly is, but it and the 



a 



Fig. 20. Acanthus lectularia, male and female; the terror by night, and 



its instruments of torture. 



capital together give the initials of the- 



I came as 

 near writing the word then as anything could be ! 



As far as its bite is concerned, I really believe its bark 

 is worse. The beast does not inject any poison, though 

 with some people the skin gets red and itchy where it bit 

 them, and of course it is entirely possible for it to transmit 

 infection, though I do not know of any such reported 

 cases. As the ladies say about mice, " It isn't the mouse 

 itself. It's the thoughts of it." So when one wakes up 

 some night in March in the midst of a dream that he is 

 out on the front stoop and that the mosquitoes are very 



