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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Feb. 1, 1868. 



And King Edward, in " Henry VI :" 



" For Warwick was a bug, that fear'd us all." 



And again in the " Winter's Tale," when Her- 

 mioue is threatened with death, she says : 



" Sir, spare your threats, 

 The bug, which you would fright me with, I seek." 



Iii Matthew's Bible, we find in the 91st Psalm : 

 " Thou shalt not need to be afraid of any bugs by 

 night ;" and by substituting the word terror in 

 recent editions, most of the original force of the 

 passage is lost. 



To return to the insect in question, it is probable 

 that it was introduced into England somewhere 

 about the close of the fifteenth or commencement of 

 the sixteenth century ; before that time, if it existed 

 at all in this country, it was comparatively rare. The 

 first mention made of it is by Mouffet, who speaks of 

 two noble ladies fearing that they had got the plague, 

 after having been bitten somewhat severely by this 

 insect. This was in 1503, and it was then known 

 by the name of Chinche, or Wall-louse ; and not 

 until some time after, when they had given good 

 proofs that they might be looked upon par excellence 

 as the " terror by night," was the word bug trans- 

 ferred to them. 



The species of Bugs are very numerous, belonging 

 to the sub- order Heteroptera,— the Land-bugs 

 (Geocorisse), and Water-bugs (Hydrocorisse), form- 

 ing its two sections. The former may be again 

 divided, according to the nature of their food and 

 their modified suctorial apparatus ; in the vegetable 

 feeders 1 he rostrum being more slender, and com- 

 posed of four joints, whilst those which prey upon 

 animals have a stouter rostrum, with only three 

 joints ; and to this belongs the one in which we are 

 most interested, the Acanthia lectularia, which 

 enters into our dwellings, infests our houses, tor- 

 tures our bodies, and robs us of our nocturnal 

 slumbers. Odious, however, as it is in appearance, 

 disgusting both in its odour aud associations, and 

 terrible in its inflictions, yet, when compared with 

 some of its relations, it might almost be looked 

 upon as a harmless and inoffensive creature. Those 

 found in tropical regions attain a much larger size, 

 the poison they instil into the wounds they make 

 is far more active, and they are consequently much 

 dreaded by the inhabitants. La Pierre speaks of 

 one found in the Mauritius more venomous than a 

 scorpion ; its bite being followed by a tumour as 

 large as a pigeon's egg, and lasting for four or five 

 days. I have seen the renowned Persian Bug, and 

 have been told that its bite is followed by death in 

 a few hours, though I should imagine this statement 

 is somewhat exaggerated ; it is nevertheless such a 

 villanously diabolical-looking thing, that I [am quite 

 sure it would wish such a result to follow. The 

 Benchuchn, or Great Black Bug ol the Pampas, is 

 said by Mr. C. Darwin to be far worse than our 



Bed-bug; and another, the Reduvius serratus, or 

 Wheel-bug of the West Indies, if placed on the 

 hand, gives a kind of electric shock which may be 

 felt as high as the shoulder. It may, I think, be 

 laid down as a rule, that there is a direct relation 

 between the temperature of a climate and the size, 

 variety of colour, and poisonous properties of its 

 insects. I speak feelingly too, when I say that a 

 bug-bite is more unendurable in a summer than in 

 a winter's night ; and I am not sure whether the 

 increased activity of the poison they inject (due to 

 the increased temperature of the season) is not the 

 principal factor in the increased annoyance which 

 they cause. 



I think it probable that the corpses your corre- 

 spondent found in the corners of his room were the 

 skins which are cast off at certain periods ; or, if 

 veritable corpses, that their deaths were due to 

 other causes than cannibalism. 



These insects, witli some others, as cockroaches, 

 spiders, &c., are the subjects of incomplete meta- 

 morphosis ; that is, in the pupa state they so nearly 

 resemble the perfect insect, both in form and habits, 

 in eating and moving ; and the changes they undergo 

 in external and internal modifications are so slight, 

 that they might appear at first sight more nearly 

 allied to those of some crustaceans than to the 

 complete metamorphoses of the higher insects. I 

 am aware it is next to impossible to prove a negative, 

 but I have placed upwards of a dozen of these 

 creatures together in a bottle, some in the pupa 

 state and others in the perfect form, and after 

 watching them frequently for several days, I never 

 saw anything like an attack upon each other, or an 

 attempt to appease their hunger, if they felt any, 

 by a feast upon their companions ; I think, if they 

 had done so, there would have been extenuating 

 circumstances, as they were simply lodged, not 

 boarded ; they, however, appeared to live amicably 

 till the last moment, when their corpses sank down 

 side by side at the bottom of the mortuary bottle. 



If, however, they do not eat each other, there are 

 bugs of other species which certainly eat them ; 

 and for this reason I bring forward, with profound 

 respect, the Reduvius personatus and the Pentatoma 

 Udens. The former is said to be particularly fond 

 of the Bed-bug, and, according to Kuhne, six or 

 eight of the latter, in a few weeks, completely 

 cleared a room which before swarmed with them. 



In houses where bugs abound, little is seen of 

 them in the daytime, or if, perchance, some solitary 

 individual is discovered, he generally appears to be 

 hurrying to some place of concealment, or else is 

 found resting in some dark spot, where he vainly 

 imagined he would never be disturbed ; as in news- 

 papers, between linen, &c. ; but 



" Soon as the evening shades prevail " 



out they come, in countless numbers, from cracks in 



