ORDER VIII. ^ 



HBTEROPTERA. 



CimicidsB — Bed-bugs . 



"In the year 1503," says Moufet, "Dr. Penny was called 

 in great haste to a little village, called Mortlake, near the 

 Thames, to visit two noble ladies (duas nobiles), who were 

 much frightened by the appearance of bug-bites {ex cinicuin 

 vestigiis), and were in fear of I know not what contagion ; 

 but when the matter was known, and the insects caught, he 

 laughed them out of all fear."^ 



This fact disproves the statement of Southall, that the 

 Gimex lectularius was not known in England before 16t0, 

 and that of Linnaeus, and the generality of later writers, 

 that this insect is not originally a native of Europe, but was 

 introduced into England after the great fire of London in 

 1666, having been brought in timber from America. 



The original English names of the C. lectularius, were 

 Chinche, Wall-louse, and Punaise (from the French); 

 and the term Bug, which is a Celtic word, signifying a 

 ghost or goblin, was applied to them after the time of Ray,^ 

 most probably because they were considered as " terrors of 

 the night. "=^ 



In the Nicholson's Journal* there is mention of a man 

 who, far from disliking Bed-bugs, took them under his pro- 

 tecting care, and would never suffer them to be disturbed, 

 or his bedsteads removed, till in the end they swarmed to an 



1 Theatr. Ins., p. 270. 



2 Ray, Hist. Ins., 7. 



3 Hence the English word Bug-bear. In Matthew's Bible, the pas- 

 sage of the Psalms (xci. 5), "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror 

 by night," is rendered, " Thou shalt not nede to be afraid of any bugs 

 by night." Bug in this sense often occurs in Shakspeare. Winter s 

 Tale, A. iii. Sc. 2, 3; Henry VI., A. v. Sc. 2; Hamlet, A. v. Sc. 2. 



* Journal, xvii. 40. 



(265) 



