THE BEDBUG. 7 



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 conceahnent 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 favora]>le conditions of 

 temperature, continue throughout the year, and in one instance the 

 progeny of a captured female adult was carried tlu'ough thi'ee 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 imforced 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 imtenanted 

 may occasionally be accounted for by such other soiu-ces 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, yomig 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 



I Girault, A A. Preliminary studies on the biologj' of the hedbug, Ciwci Icctularius, Linn. II. Facts 

 obtained concerning the duration of its different stages. Jn Jour. Econ. Biol., v. 7, no. 4, p 163-188. 1912. 



