154 INSECTS AND MAN 



the adult stage is reached, the first taking place in about 

 six weeks from emergence ; the second, during the second 

 or third month; the third, from the fourth to the sixth 

 month ; the fourth at about the ninth month ; and the final 

 moult, six weeks later. The penultimate stage is the critical 

 one, many of the bugs dying before they reach maturity. 

 A week after reaching the adult stage, the insects take a 

 meal of blood, and, in the ordinary course of events, the 

 females begin egg-laying eight weeks later. 



The complete life-cycle, under favourable conditions, 

 takes nearly eleven months. Metamorphosis is incomplete, 

 that is to say, there is no resting stage, and the immature 

 forms are active throughout life, but their wings do not 

 develop till they are adult. Being wingless, the young 

 bugs are only able to attack people sleeping in beds; as 

 a consequence, hammocks are much in favour, despite the 

 fact that they entail no immunity from the strong-flying 

 adults. Feeding takes place at night ; the rostrum or beak 

 (fig. 43) is plunged into the flesh and blood is imbibed. 

 Curiously enough, the so-called bite is painless and leaves 

 no scar. 



In this connection it is of interest to read Darwin's 

 remarks in his Journal of a Naturalist ; speaking of the 

 bites of a closely related bug he said : " We slept in the 

 village of Luxan, which is a small place surrounded by 

 gardens, and forms the most southern cultivated district 

 in the Province of Mendoza ; it is five leagues south of the 

 capital. At night I experienced an attack (for it deserves 

 no less a name) of the Benchuca, a species of Reduvius, the 

 great black bug of the Pampas. It is most disgusting to 

 feel soft, wingless insects about an inch long crawling over 

 one's body. Before sucking they are quite thin, but after- 

 wards they become round and bloated with blood, and in 

 this stage are easily crushed. One which I caught at 

 Iquique (for they are found in Chili and Peru) was very 

 empty. When placed on a table, and though surrounded 



