HEMIPTERA. 93 



enough in France. It keeps to the houses, and is found especially 

 near ovens and chimney-pieces. It is about three-quarters of an inch 

 in length, oblong, flat on its upper side, brownish, has horizontal 

 hemelytra crossed over each other, and very fully developed wings, 

 •which serve for flight. Its head, narrow, supported by a well-defined 

 neck, is provided with two composite and two simple eyes. It 

 requires, no doubt, to see very clearly, as it flies by night. It should 

 not be caught without great caution. If you desire to examine it 

 closely, when, in the hottest part of the summer, it comes in the 

 evening and flutters round the lights, you must be careful how you 

 seize it, for it wounds. The wounds inflicted by it are very painful — 

 more painful than those of the bee— and they immediately cause a 

 numbness. 



As the Reduvius kills different insects very rapidly, by piercing 

 them with its long beak, it is probable that it secretes some kind of 

 venom. But as yet the organ that produces this poison has not been 

 discovered. However that may be, its beak is curved, and about the 

 tenth of an inch long, the surface bristling with hairs. It is composed 

 of three joints, and contains four stiff, lanceolate, and very pointed 

 squamose hairs. 



This insect often seeks its prey in places where spiders spin their 

 webs. When they walk on, or are caught in, the spiders' webs, the 

 spiders take care not to seize them, for they fear their beak. They 

 prudently allow them to stniggle about the nets, where they very 

 soon die of hunger. The Reduvius is often seen, either a prisoner 

 jor dead, in the midst of a spider's web. 



" This bug," says Charles de Geer, " has, in the pupal condition, 

 or before its wings are developed, an appearance altogether hideous 

 and revolting. One would take it, at the first glance, for one of the 

 ugliest of spiders. That which above all renders it so disagreeable 

 to the sight is that it is entirely covered, and, as it were, enveloped 

 with a greyish matter, which is nothing else but the dust which one 

 sees in the corners of badly-swept rooms, and which is generally 

 mixed with sand and particles of wool, or silk, or other similar 

 matters which come from furniture and clothes, rendering the legs of 

 this insect thick and deformed, and giving to its whole body a very 

 singular appearance." 



What instincts ! what habits ! Under this, borrow^ed costume, 

 under this cloak, which is no part of itself, the insect, as it were, 

 masked, has become twice its real size. What becomes of its 

 disguise, and how does it manage to walk ? Of what use to it is this 

 dirty and grotesque fancy dress ? 



