THE BEDBUG FAMILY. 617 



KEY TO EASTERN GENERA OF CIMM'IN.K. 



a. Front margin of pronotum widely and deeply concave; pubescence 

 of body very short except along the margins; joint 3 of antennae 

 longer than 4. I. Cimex. 



act. Front margin of pronotum shallowly concave, nearly straight at 

 middle; pubescence long and sericeous; joints 3 and 4 of antenna? 

 subequal. II. CEciacus. 



I. Cimex Linnaeus, 1758, 441. 



Head longer than median part of pronotum, broader across 

 the eyes than long, its hind portion broadly rounded ; antennae 

 with joints 1 and 2 much stouter than the others, joint 1 very 

 short, not surpassing tip of tylus, 2 and 3 each nearly as long as 

 head, 4 three-fifths the length of 3 ; thorax with side margins 

 broadly rounded, strongly reflexed ; margins of thorax and 

 elytra fringed with numerous curved hairs ; elytra each reduced 

 to a single short plate without membrane or clavus. Two 

 species occur in the eastern states. 



KEY TO EASTERN SPECIES OF CIMEX. 



a. Commissure of elytra shorter than scutellum; joint 2 of antenna? 

 slightly shorter than 3 ; fringing hairs of pronotal margin shorter 

 than width of eye. 593. lectularius. 



act. Commissui'e of elyti*a longer than scutellum; joints 2 and 3 of anten- 

 na? equal in length; fringing hairs of pronotum longer than width 

 of eye. 594. pilosellus. 



593 (836). Cimex lectularius Linna?us, 1758, 441. 



Broadly oval. Color a uniform rather dark reddish-brown, often 

 with a yellowish tinge; antenna?, beak, tibia? and tarsi paler. Elytra 

 with hind margin nearly straight, their inner apical angle broadly 

 rounded. Abdomen very wide, suborbicular. Other characters as above 

 given. Length, 5 — 6 mm. (Fig. 155). 



Lake and Marion counties, Ind., April 1 — June 5. Sao Paulo, 

 Brazil, Dec. 17; Santiago, Chile, Jan. 22 (W.S.B.). This is 

 the festive "bedbug," known the world over for its blood-suck- 

 ing propensities with man as the victim. It is doubtless com- 

 mon throughout Indiana and the entire United States, being 

 especially so in ill-kept houses and hotels. Like the flat-bodied 

 cosmopolitan cockroaches it easily conceals itself in crevices of 

 ships and so has followed everywhere man in his wanderings. 

 Marlatt (1896, 32) has given an excellent account of its habits 

 and distribution from which I quote as follows : 



"This disgusting human parasite, the very discussion of which is 

 tabooed in polite society, is practically limited to houses of the meaner 



