HEMIPTERA. 137 



Family REDUVIID^E (Red-u-vi'i-dae). 

 The Assassin-bugs. 



There are many bugs which destroy their fellows, but 

 the members of this family are so pre-eminently predaceous 

 that we call them the Assassin-bugs. Although they usually 

 live on the blood of insects, in some cases they attack the 

 higher animals, and occasionally even man suffers from 

 them. Care should be used in collecting them, as some 

 are apt to inflict painful stings with their beaks. In this 

 family the beak is only three-jointed, and when not in use 

 the tip rests in a groove between the fore legs. The family is 

 a very large one, containing more than a hundred American 

 species. 



In the Atlantic States one sometimes finds, in basements 

 and in rooms but little used, a bug which presents a very 

 curious appearance from having its body and legs completely 

 covered with dust, so that it looks like a living mass of lint 

 as it moves around. This is the Masked Bed-bug Hunter, 

 Opsiccetus personatus (Op-si-cce'tus per-so-na'tus). This 

 species infests houses for the sake of preying 

 upon bed-bugs ; it also feeds upon flies and other 

 insects. Its mask is worn only during youth, and 

 consists of particles of dust and fibres which ad- 

 here to a sticky substance with which the body, 

 legs, and antennae are covered. The adult is 

 black or very dark brown, and is represented by 

 Figure 160. 



A closely allied species, which is black marked 

 with red, insinuates itself into beds for a less com- 

 mendable purpose than that of its ally, for it sucks human 

 blood at first hand. This insect occurs in the Southern and 

 Western States ; it is the Big Bed-bug, Conor/iinus sanguisu- 

 gus (Co-nor'hi-nus san-gui-su'gus). Nearly all the members 

 of this family, however, live upon trees and other plants, and 

 prey upon insects. 



