104 OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



A similar but more plainly colored species has been named by Prof. 

 Comstock the Masked Bed-bug hunter {Opsicoetas personatus), from its 

 habit of preying- on the genuine bed-bug. It is an European species^ 

 but a variety is also native to the Eastern States. The young secrete 

 all over the surface a viscid iiuid to which dust and particles of wool 

 and feathers adhere, giving them a most singular and disguised appear- 

 ance. The Rapacious Soldier-bug {Reduvius raptatorms, Say.) is a slen- 

 der, rather graceful bug with a long narrow head, and stout raptatorial 

 front legs. The sides of the thorax are sharply angled. (See Fig. 41.) 

 It preys on all soft- bodied insects. Of similar form and habits is the 

 Many-banded robber [Milyas cinctus, Fabr.), which appears in yellow^ 

 black and white colors. 



The family Acanthii^^, is represented by a single species of the 

 worst repute — the mal-odorous and cosmopolitan bed-bug {Acanthia 

 lectularia, Linn). Few people are so happy as not to have made the 

 acquaintance of this annoying insect, if not in their own well-kept cham- 

 bers, at least in those of hotels and boarding houses, from which it can 

 only by the greatest care be excluded. It is of tlat, broad-oval form 

 and red-brown color, about one-fifth of an inch long. It never acquires 

 wings, and the perfect bugs can only be known from the youug by their 

 larger size, darker color and very minute rudiments of wing covers. 

 It is strictly nocturnal, and hides by day in the smallest cracks and 

 crevices. It is capable of enduring long fasts, and it is said will 

 recover its vitality after being imprisoned for many months without 

 food. 



A solution of corrosive sublimate in alcohol is the most certain 

 remedy in infested rooms and on bed-steads. Benzine and kerosene 

 are also much used, and by dusting the sheets with pyrethrum powder, 

 travelers may obtain a night's rest even in infested rooms. This bug i& 

 said to occur in myriads under the dead bark of certain trees in the far 

 west, although, if animal fluids be necessary to its development, it i& 

 difficult to imagine on what it can feed under such circumstances. 



There are several families of amphibious bugs which are chiefly 

 interesting from their adaptation to walking lightly on the surface of 

 the water, or in marshy spots, without having the feet broadened or 

 any sail-like or oar-like processes to aid locomotion. 



The Water-stiiders (Hydrobatid^) have the middle and hinder 

 legs very long, the bodies slender and flattened, and no distinct scutel- 

 lum. They are predaceous in habit, and leap into the air after the small 

 flies and gnats on which they subsist. 



Among the Aquatic bugs are the Water scorpions and Giant water 

 bugs (Nepid^), where we find some species that exceed in size all 



