50 BED-BUGS AND FLOWER-BUGS. 
can attack a victim they become round and resemble a minute 
globule of blood. Imbibing blood whenever they have an oppor- 
tunity, they quickly grow, and after moulting several times they 
reach their adult and sexually mature condition. The organ by 
means of which they obtain blood is a sucking tube or haustel- 
lum, Fig. 3. This is composed of two half-cylindrical side- 
pieces, analogous with the labium and labial palpi, and enclosed 
in this tube are four sharp and pointed lancets, the transformed 
mandibles and maxillary palpi. 
The female deposits eggs during the warmer season four 
times, and about fifty at a time. In Minnesota these bugs have 
only one annual generation, yet judging from their numbers in 
certain, not first-class, hotels, not hundreds of miles distant from 
the ‘Twin Cities,” they should have numerous broods every few 
weeks. With plenty of food and a warm temperature, they mul- 
Fic. 41.—Eggs of Acanthia hirundinis Senyns,in nest of swallow; greatly 
enlarged. Original. 
tiply rapidly; and if things are favorable, it requires only eleven 
weeks for the bug to undergo its transformation from egg to 
adult. Only the adult insects hibernate or are able to withstand 
severe cold. It is not necessary to describe them in detail, as the 
illustration shows well the structure of these yellowish-brown para- 
sites. The disagreeable “bed-buggy” odor is produced in minute 
elands which are situated in the adult bug on the under side of 
the body, and in the young one on the back of the thorax. The 
peculiar and penetrating odor of these parasites is, to many per- 
sons, even worse than their bites. Those who have been forced to 
sleep in a room which had not been occupied for weeks, and in 
a bed alive with hungry bed-bugs, know how interesting these 
parasites can make it, and how active they become as soon as the 
light is extinguished. Like harpies they attack the would-be 
sleeper, and their bites produce the sensation of being stung 
with hot needles; soon the whole body is in a fever, and big 
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