THE BEDBUG. 3 



VARIETIES AND RELATED INSECTS. 



What may eventually prove to he mere variations of the ordinary- 

 type of human hedhng have been described as distinct species in sev- 

 eral instances. For example, tlie common bedbug of southern Asia is 

 supposed to present some slight variations from the European type, 

 chiefly in being somewhat more elongate. These slightly diverging 

 forms of the bedbug in different parts of the world, which are not 

 known to have any special bird or animal host other than human 

 beings, may prove to be merely local races or varieties of the ordinary 

 bedbug. 



Birds, bats, and poultry are attacked in various parts of the world 

 by a considerable number of parasitic bugs, closely related to the 

 bedbug, which live on their hosts and in nests and about roosting 

 places. One of these species, occurring abundantly in southwestern 

 United States and Mexico,^ probably originally a parasitic messmate 

 on birds and bats, has come to be an unmitigated poultry pest, and 

 from the close association in these regions between poultry and human 

 beings, is often a serious house pest — more so even than the true bed- 

 bug. Others of the species infesting birds and bats may also on occa- 

 sion become house pests. For example, the nests of the common 

 barn or eaves swallow of this country often swarm with the barn- 

 swallow bug,2 and from such nests under the eaves of dwelling 

 houses these bugs sometimes gain entrance to houses and beds and 

 are the cause of much annoyance. Similarly a species,^ normally a 

 parasite of birds and bats in the Old World, and also in Brazil and 

 the West Indies, not infrequently becomes a human parasite. 



GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The bedbug belongs to the order Hemiptera, which includes the 

 true bugs or piercing insects, characterized by possessing a piercing 

 and sucking beak. The bedbug is to man what the chinch bug is 

 to grains or the squash bug to cucurbs. Like nearly all the insects 

 parasitic on animals, however, it is degraded structurally, its para- 

 sitic nature and the slight necessity for extensive locomotion having 

 resulted, after many ages doubtless, in the loss of wings and the 

 assumption of a comparatively simple structure. Before feeding, the 

 adult (fig. 2) is much flattened, oval, and in color is rust red, with 

 the abdomen more or less tinged with black. When engorged the 

 body becomes much bloated and elongated and brightly colored 

 from the ingested blood. The wings are represented ])y the merest 

 rudiments, barely recognizable pads, and the simple eyes or ocelli 



1 ( Cimex) Haematosiphon inodora Diig&s. 



2 ( Cimex) Oeciacus hirundinis Jenyns. 



* Cimex hemiptents Fab. (synonym, rotundafus Sign.). 



