4.4 FLAT-BUGS. 
erected this would soon afterwards swarm with bed-bugs. 
Truth and fiction are here sadly mixed! It is true that such 
cabins often contain a dense population of various insects para- 
sitic upon man, but they have been brought there by the inhab- 
itants, and did not come with the timber from the woods. In 
many cases, when the writer asked for proof, such insects as 
are shown in Figs. 35, 36 and 37 were sent to him as examples 
of them. They resemble bed-bugs in many ways, especially in 
their earlier and unwinged stages, but a trained eye can easily 
detect the very great difference between the two. ‘Tiwo species 
are most commonly found in and about log cabins. The one 
Fic. 37.—Aradus cinnamomeus Panz. Enlarged. Original. 
illustrated, (Fig. 35, adult, and Fig. 36, larva), is black, as flat 
as the genuine bed-bug, and just as inactive during the day. 
It is Aradus robustus Uhler. Another species, illustrated in 
Fig. 37, resembles the bed-bug even more closely, being of the 
same color and size; this is Aradus cinnamomeus Panz. These 
insects, as well as a number of similar ones, live normally under 
bark -of living and dead trees; they are true vegetable feeders, 
subsisting upon the sap of plants. Whenever logs are cut the 
sap contained in them, and especially that near the surface, 
ferments, and this attracts a large number of insects fond of 
this fluid. This explains why so many insects can be found 
near saw-mills, and chiefly upon freshly cut boards. 
