110 HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



(Fig. 35). The under lip has become greatly lengthened 

 and the edges rolled upward until they nearly meet on 

 top, thus forming almost a closed tube that constitutes 

 the so-called beak. Inside this tube are four long, 

 slender, thread-like organs that move over each other 

 with a gliding, alternating motion that enables them to 

 pierce and lacerate the flesh and set the blood free. The 

 whole serves as a tube to conduct the blood to the 

 mouth. 



The body of the bedbug is flat and wide (Plate II), a 

 character that fits it wonderfully well to the places it has 

 chosen for its home. The cracks and crevices of bed- 

 steads furnish admirable protective retreats for an insect 

 with a flat, thin body. Moreover, the bedbug has no large 

 wings to get in its way and encumber its retreat. It is 

 reasoned that the ancestors of the bedbug had wings but 

 that owing to a parasitic, flightless life of so many ages 

 the wings have gradually become lost through disuse. 

 There are still rudiments of wings, for they have not 

 been wholly lost. What is left of the wings are simply 

 short, almost invisible pads, and it is fortunate that they 

 do not have full-fledged wings with which to fly, for then 

 they might be wholly beyond control. 



DISSEMINATION OF THE BEDBUG 



It often puzzles a good housekeeper, for good house- 

 keepers will sometimes find these pests on their beds, to 

 know how the insects became established in her house. 

 One of the most prevalent ways by which bedbugs gain 

 access to houses is on the laundry brought in by the washer- 

 woman. The author has repeatedly seen bedbugs come 



