THE BEDBUG. it 
time, and the checking of development by such starvation may result 
in additional molting periods. 
The breeding records referred to, and numerous confirmatory 
experiments subsequently made by other investigators, indicate 
that ordinarily but one meal is taken between molts, so that each 
bedbug must puncture its host five times before becoming mature, 
and at least once afterwards before it can develop eggs. Additional 
meals between molts may be taken under favoring circumstances, 
however, and particularly when the insect has been disturbed and 
has not become fully engorged at its first meal after a molting or 
other period. The bedbug takes from 5 to 10 minutes to become 
bloated with blood, and then retires to its place of concealment for 
6 to 10 days for the quiet digestion of its enormous meal, and for 
subsequent molting, or reproduction if in the adult stage. 
Such feeding and reproduction may, under favorable conditions of 
temperature, continue throughout the year, and in one instance the 
progeny of a captured female adult was carried through three con- 
tinuous generations.' 
Unfavorable conditions of temperature and food will necessarily 
result in great variation in the number of generations annually and 
in the rate of multiplication, but allowing for reasonable checks on 
development, there may be at least four successive broods in a year 
in houses kept well heated in winter. 
FOOD AND LONGEVITY. 
Under normal conditions the food of the common bedbug is 
obtained from human beings only, and no other unforced feeding 
habit has been reported. It is easily possible, however, to force the 
bedbug to feed on mice, rats, birds, etc., and probably it may do so 
occasionally in nature in the absence of its normal host. The 
abundance of this insect in houses which have long been untenanted 
may occasionally be accounted for by such other sources of food, but 
probably normally such infestation can be explained by the natural 
longevity of the insect and its ability to survive for practically a year, 
and perhaps more, without food. 
There are many records indicating the ability of the bedbug to 
survive for long periods without food, and specimens have been kept 
for a year in a sealed vial with absolutely no means of sustenance 
whatever. In the course of the department’s study of this insect in 
1896, young bedbugs, obtained from eggs, were kept in small sealed 
vials for several months, remaining active in spite of the fact that 
they had never taken any nourishment whatever. <A considerable 
1Girault, A, A. Preliminary studies on the biology of the bedbug, Cimex lectularius, Linn. TI. Facts 
obtained concerning the duration of its different stages. Jn Jour. Econ. Biol., y.7,n0. 4, p 163-188. 1912. 
