. PSYCHE 
[December 
I i8 
In view of the foregoing facts, and because of the importance of the ques- 
tion, the following preliminary and rather crude experiments have been per- 
formed, showing that h'ctularius will readily attack both living and dead mice. 
The experiments also explain to a certain extent, the supposed occurrence of the 
bedbug in long unoccupied houses, from the fact that writers, now, will not have 
to theorize in regard to moisture, and so forth as a food, in order to support 
their statements. 
The specimens used in these experiments were all obtained by jarring beds 
in one of the large mission houses in the city of Washington, about 7 P. .M., 
September the eleventh, 1905. They were then full-fed, and the majority of them 
in the last larval instar (instar V). They soon molted, and then, were specific- 
ally determined by comparison with specimens in the collection of the United 
States National Museum. 
.\. Experiment with a recaitly dead mouse. 
A single mouse killed in the insectary of the Department of Agriculture at 
8.40 A. M., September 20th, was immediately placed under a large bell-jar, on a 
clean sheet of white paper. 
I. Nymph. Six minutes afterwards, 8.46 A. M., a nymph in instar III, 
which was starved when captured on September i ith, was placed under the bell- 
jar. It was nearly transparent. 'I'he larva paused a few seconds, and then went 
to the carcass; at 8:46:35 .\. M., it was feeding from the toes of the left hind leg, 
from which it was apparently unable to extract much blood. At 8.51 a. m., it 
left the toes and crawled completely around the head end of the body to the 
right hind leg, and there again attempted to feed from the toes of that leg, but 
with little or no success. At 8:53:30 A. M., it left its last position, crawled 
around the head end of the body, and attached itself to the abdomen. Up to 
this moment, the larva was but slightly tinged with blood. .Attached to abdo- 
men at 8:54 A. M.; larva’s abdomen red from blood at 8:54:30 A. M.; larva half 
full of blood at 8:57 .V. M. d'he larva appeared to be weak, and was having much 
trouble to obtain blood, .‘\fter 9 M., the larva remained the same, as far as 
the amount of food obtained is concerned, but frequently changed its position on 
the carcass. It was removed from the carcass at 10:30 A. M., having voluntarily 
left it at 10:20. The body of the mouse was getting cold at 9.0S A. M. The 
larva was not fullv gorged with blood, but it is evident that this was due to its 
weakness, a condition apparently due to its age, combined with its previously 
starved condition. Cases of this kind are often met with in this species. It 
molted on September 28th, without having been fed again. 
