Report of the State Entomologist. 133 



The bed-bug is known to have inveterate foes in two or three other 

 members of its own order, the Hemiptera. Heduvius jjersonafus (Linn.) 

 and Pirates biguttatu^ (Saj-), two insects resembling the well-known 

 squash-bug, as shown in figure 47 of page 112, feed eagerly upon it,— the 

 former, while in its pupal state, completely enveloping itself in a mask 

 of dust and dirt for its better concealment while lying in wait for its 

 prey. Of another men\ber of the bug order, Pentatoma hidens, it is 

 reported that six or eight of them, shut up in a room swarming with 

 bed-bugs, completely exterminated them in the course of a few weeks. 

 The Cermatia, if so inclined, would prove an expert hunter of this 

 pest: ma}' further observations show it to be so. 



Of other food that our houses might furnish, may be mentioned 

 these : The little red ant, flies, the larva of the carpet-beetle (the 

 clothes-moth would not be sufficiently abundant), and spiders. It 

 will be of interest to note if any of the above-named creatures 

 diminish or disappear when the Cermatia domesticates itself. 



Is it Poisonous ? 



It is vmdoubtedly jjoisonous, but not to an extent that it need be the 

 occasion of any alarm. The raoscpiito, when it thrusts its beak, com- 

 posed of six distinct pieces, into our flesh, and draws thence the blood 

 through the channel that they form, is supposed to instil into the 

 wound at the same time a venomous li(|uid, which causes the blood to 

 flow more freely, and occasions the subsequent irritation, so different 

 from that resulting from the prick of a pin or needle. Spiders — 

 house-spiders as well as others — -are poisonous, and kill their prey, 

 upon the juices of which they afterward feed, by injecting poison in 

 them. Their mandibles are constructed after the manner of the 

 rattlesnake's fang, the aperture for the discharge of the venom being, 

 like that, placed on the outer curve of the mandible, and communicating 

 through a duct with a poison sac at its base. And yet they seldom 

 excite fear or terror, nor should they do so, for their fangs are only 

 used on other insects that they may procure their food, or in self- 

 defense, if molested and unable to escajie. No one likes to kill a 

 spider. 



Wood states of the Chilopoda, to which Cermatia belongs : " There 

 can be no doubt but that they are provided with poison glands, situ- 

 ated at the base of the mandibular teeth, and perhaps also at the bases 

 of the terminal claws of the feet." Newport has observed in Scolo- 

 vendra the longitudinal opening at the inner margin of the apex of 

 the mandible communicating with a poison sac, and the gland of which 

 it is the reservoir. Latreille, from observations on Cerviatia araneoides 



