210 



INJURIOUS \XH BENEFICIAL INSECTS <>F CALIFORNIA. 



REDUVIID^ (Family) 



KISSING BUGS. PIRATE BUGS OR ASSASSIN BUGS 

 i Figs. L84-186) 



As the common names imply, these hugs are predaceous in habits. 

 They feed upon many kinds of soft-bodied insects and other animals 

 and v;n\ greatly in size, but are mostly medium or quite large. The 



leys are long, the front pair 

 often enlarged for grasping 

 the prey. The head is very 

 small and the antennae three- 



Fig. 184. — The rapacious soldier-bug, 8i- 

 iiid diadema (Say). The adults are light 

 buff with darker brown markings. Female 

 enlarged three times. (Original) 



Fig. 185. — The west- 

 ern blood-sucking cone- 

 nose, Triatoma protrac- 



tus (Uhler). This is 

 also known as the China 

 bed-bug and sacred bug. 

 It sometimes "bites" 

 humans. The adults are 

 dull black throughout 

 and three fourths inch 

 long. (Original) 



jointed. The beak is short, stout, usually curved, three-jointed and very 

 sharp. Because of their predaeeous habits they are considered bene- 

 ficial. Occasionally, however, people are bitten, but the bite is little 

 more severe than the sting of a wasp or honey bee. 



THE WESTERN CORSAIR 



Rasahus thoracicus St al 



(Fig. 186) 



Description. — The adults are striking in their appearance, being 

 rather slender with long legs and antennas and of a uniform yellowish- 

 brown color. The length averages nearly f inch. The membrane of 

 the wings is black with a circular yellowish-brown spot in the middle 

 of each. When the wings are folded these spots overlap and only the 

 upper one appears like a single spot on the dorsum of the abdomen, 

 .just behind the middle. This species is one of the ''kissing bugs" and 

 lives up to that name at every afforded opportunity. 



Life History.— The egg-laying habits of the adults and the younger 

 stages are not known. The adults appear in the early spring and con- 

 tinue in evidence until winter. They are usually found singly and 



