

HEMIPTERA. 



93 



Fig. 70. 



Bed Bug {Acaiiihia lechtlaria) 



magnified. 



fcetidum animal," says Linnaeus. Its body is oval, about the fifth of 



an inch in length, flat, soft, of a brown colour, and covered with 



Httle hairs. Its head is provided with two hairy antennae, and two 



round black eyes, and has a short beak, curved directly under its 



thorax, and lying in a shallow groove when the animal is at rest. 



This beak, composed of three joints, contains 



four thin, straight, and sharp hairs. The 



thorax is dilated at the sides. The abdomen 



is- very much developed, orbicular, composed 



of eight segments, very much depressed, and 



easily crushed by the fingers. The hemelytra 



are rudimentary. It has no membranous 



wings. The tarsi have three articulations, of 



which the last is provided with two strong 



hooks. 



" These animals," says Moquin-Tandon, 

 in his " Zoologie Me'dicale," " do not draw 

 up the sanguineous fluid by suction, properly 

 so-called, as leeches do. The organisation 

 of their buccal apparatus does not allow of 

 this. The hairs of the beak applied the one 

 against the other exercise a sort of alternate p;^ ^ 



motion, which drawls the blood up into the Egg of Eu|, magnified, 

 oesophagus, very much in the same manner 



as water rises in a chain pump. This rising is assisted by the viscous 

 nature of the fluid, and above all, by the globules it contains." The 

 part of the skin which the Bug has pierced, producing a painful 

 sensation, is easily recognised by a little reddish mark, presenting in 

 its centre a dark spot. Generally a little blister rises on the point 

 pierced, and sometimes, if the Bug-bites are numerous, these blisters 

 become confluent, and resemble a sort of eruption. These disgusting 

 insects lay, towards the month of May, oblong whitish eggs (Fig. 71), 

 having a small aperture, through which the larva comes out. The 

 larva differs from the insect in its perfect state, in its colour, which is 

 pale or yellowish. This insect exists in nearly the whole of Europe, 

 although it is rare or almost unknown in the northern parts. The 

 towns of central Europe are the most infested by this parasite, but 

 those of the north are not completely free from its presence. The 

 Alarquis de Custine assures us that at St. Petersburg he found them 

 numerous. It is found also in Scotland ; is very rare in the south of 

 Europe ; and seldom seen in Italy, where it is, however, replaced by 

 other insects more dangerous or more annoying. 



