CIMEX LECTULARIUS 



535 



entire development up to complete maturity takes about eleven 

 months. [They will breed all the year round, but less so in cold 

 weather. F. V. T.] 



The bed bugs live in the cracks and fissures of human habitations, under carpets, 

 behind pictures, in furniture, bedsteads, etc. ; hidden during the day, they attack 

 persons at night to suck their blood. The alkaline secretion of the salivary glands 

 dropped into the wound around the separate bites causes the so-called " wheals." 



The bed bugs were known in bygone days by the Greeks (/capto) and the Romans 

 (cimex). They were first mentioned from Strasburg in the eleventh century, and 

 in England about 1500. 



[This is the common bed bug of northern latitudes and must not be confused with 

 the tropical bed bug (C. rotundatus). The bed bug can migrate from one house to 

 another; this especially takes place when a house is uninhabited. They escape 

 from windows and pass along walls, water-pipes and gutters, and so reach adjoining 

 houses. This noxious pest accompanies man wherever he goes ; ships and trains 

 become infested, especially the former. 



[A characteristic feature in this animal is the peculiar odour it produces, like 

 many others in the same group of insects. This odour comes- from a clear, oily 

 volatile liquid secreted by glands in various parts of the body. Although he normal 

 food is man's blood, the bed bug can subsist upon moist wood, dust and dirt that 

 collects in crevices in floors, walls, furniture, etc. The puncturing mouth consists of 



FIG. 379. Head of the bed bug from the ventral surface, a, the rostrum ; 

 , the antenna ; and c, the eye. 70/1. 



a fleshy under lip, within which lie four thread-like hard filaments which pierce the 

 flesh, the blood being drawn up through the beak. 



[The eggs are oval, white, with a projecting rim around one end, with a lid which 

 is pushed off when the young hatch ; they are laid in cracks and crevices in batches 

 of from twelve to fifty. The egg stage lasts from seven to ten days. The larval 

 stage so gradually passes into the adult that one scarcely notices the change ; 

 during its growth the skin is cast five times, and at the change the little wing-pads 

 are seen, showing that the adult stage is reached. The young larva is at first pale 

 yellowish-white. It resembles the parent, but has no trace of elytra. Although 

 eleven weeks is said to be necessary for their development, the stages may be gone 

 through much more rapidly ; Howard and Marlatt l give seven weeks in some 

 instances. It seems pretty certain that these Cimex only take one meal of blood 

 between each moult and another preceding egg laying. F. V. T.J 



1 "Household Insects," Howard and Marlatt, Bull. 4 (N.S.), U.S. Dept. Agric., 

 1896, p. 37. 



