568 



INSECTS AT HOME. 



into England, and si^reading with a rapidity to which the cus- 

 toms of our ancestors gave every assistance, would be distin- 

 guished by a name which signified a nightly terror. 



Being very flat and short-legged, and always walking with 

 the legs in nearly the same plane as the body, the Bug can 

 creep into very narrow crevices, and hundreds can hide them- 

 selves where there seems scarcely to be room for half a dozen. 

 In the chinks of old furniture, and especially behind the 

 wooden panels of old walls, they pack tliemselves so closely 



LXVTI 



1. Acanthia lectularia. 

 lectularia, fore-leg. 

 d. Do., rostrum. 



2. Coranns subapterus. 3. Reiluvins pei"sonatus. a. Acanthia 

 6. Do., Antenna. c. Do., head, showing position of rostrum. 



and in such numbers that they form thick layers of living 

 insects, and the language of the carpenter in ' Punch ' is hardly 

 exaggerated when he said that if he were to take away a 

 panel, they would get up on their hind legs, and bark like dogs. 

 The eggs of this insect are very small, and can be inserted 



