HEMIPTERA 



103 



The begbug is nocturnal in habits, hiding by day in the cracks of 

 furniture and beneath various objects. The white oval eggs are laid in 

 batches in cracks and crevices of bedsteads and furniture, under seams of 

 mattresses and in other places. They hatch in from six to ten days and 

 the nymphs, under favorable conditions, become grown in 35 to 48 days. 

 In well-heated houses the bugs will multiply all the year round. 



Family Nabid^e 

 The Nabids 



and somewhat oval behind. In 

 short-winged and a long-winged 



Fig. 164. — Nabis 

 subcoleoptratus. 



Fig. 165. — Hemelytron of Nabis ferus. 



In this family the body is oblong 



some species there are two forms, a 

 form. In case of one of 

 the most common spe- 

 cies, Nabis subcoleop- 

 tratus, the short-winged 

 form (Fig. 164), in 

 which the hemelytra 

 barely reach to the 

 second abdominal segment, is much more abundant than 



the long-winged form. It is of a shining jet-black color with yellowish 



legs. 



Family Reduviid^; 

 The Assassin-bugs 



This is a large family containing bugs of very diverse form. They 

 are predacious on other insects and sometimes on the higher animals, 

 even attacking man. The beak is three-segmented and very efficient as a 

 puncturing instrument. 



The masked bedbug hunter, Reduvius personatus, has become noto- 

 rious as a "kissing bug" for it often inflicts painful wounds on the cheeks 

 and lips of human beings with its beak. The nymphs of this bug are 

 masked with lint and dust which adhere to the body by reason of a 

 sticky substance secreted by the insect. These nymphs frequent houses 

 and often destroy bedbugs when the latter can be found. The adult 

 (Fig. 166) is very dark brown and about § of an inch in length. 

 The big bedbug, 

 Triatoma sanguisilga, 

 which occurs in the 

 southern states is nearly 

 an inch long. It attacks 

 man as well as chickens 

 and sucks the blood. 



The wheel -bug, Ari- 

 lus cristatus, is of inter- 

 Redu- est because of the 

 cogwheel-like crest on 

 See page 108. w 

 The thread-legged bug, Emesa brevipennis, is a curious form with its 

 long, slender body and thread-like legs (Fig. 167). 



Fig. 166.— 



vius personatus 



its prothorax. 



Fig. 167. — Emesa brevipennis. 



