290 



OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



till their armies have amounted to tens of thousands. 

 Here, then, is a good word for the cockroach, although 

 it may fairly be questioned whether the remedy is not 

 almost as bad as the disease. 



The eggs of the bed-bug are small, white, oval objects 

 (Fig. 95) ; they are laid in cracks and crevices, and are 

 caused to adhere to the surface on which 

 they are deposited by a kind of varnish 

 with which they are wet when laid. Ac- 

 cording to Southall, about fifty eggs are 

 laid in each batch. The young bugs make 

 their entry into the world by pushing off a 

 kind of lid at the end of the egg, and the 

 empty egg-shell then looks like a little 

 round -bottomed china jar, with a neat rim 

 round the opening. The newly hatched 

 bug is a very minute, transparent, six- 

 ^ e e( ^ crea ture, showing no trace of the 

 brown colour which characterises it in 

 adult life. It is sufficiently transparent to reveal some- 

 thing of its internal economy through the skin ; and 

 after it has had a meal of blood, 

 a dark red spot appears in the 

 region of its digestive apparatus. 

 It has a broad triangular head, 

 and the antennae are short, and 

 proportionately much thicker 

 than when full grown. Of course, 

 no signs of wings are apparent 

 while the insect is in this im- 

 FIG. 9 6.-Newiy hatched Bug. mature condition (Fig. 96). 



During the course of the larval 



life the skin is shed several times, each moult being 

 accompanied by a closer approach to the form of the 



