294 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



vegetable substances, or upon mere inorganic moisture, 

 and the slight amount of organic matter that may con- 

 tain in solution, would in most cases be an unprecedented 

 proceeding ; and there are hosts of insects which would 

 rather starve than do it. But it is not at all an unusual 

 circumstance in the order Hemiptera ; and several of the 

 wild bugs seem to be quite indifferent as to whether 

 they are supplied with an animal or vegetable diet. 

 Another suggestion by which it has been proposed to 

 account for their presence in uninhabited houses is that, 

 the colony having been established during the human 

 occupation, they have, since the desertion of the premises 

 by their hosts, preyed upon one another, and so sustained 

 life. But an obvious objection to the -theory is, that by 

 such a course their numbers would be speedily thinned, 

 and the colony would probably soon become extinct, a 

 result which by no means tallies with experience. If 

 in such cases the bugs really found any difficulty as to 

 the commissariat, of course migration would be open to 

 them ; and it is difficult to believe that, enterprising as 

 they are, they would not avail themselves of such an 

 expedient, if really hard pressed by famine. 



While it may be admitted that the hard-skinned, 

 ungrowing adults can subsist for long periods without 

 food, it is probable that the younger and softer skinned 

 forms, in whose bodies the vital processes are more 

 rapid, require more frequent supplies. Such, at any 

 rate, is the experience of those who have attempted to 

 rear any of the wild species of Hemiptera with which 

 our woods, fields, and hedges swarm. As the surest and 

 safest way of avoiding bugs in the house is the cultiva- 

 tion of scrupulous cleanliness, it would seem probable 

 that the miscellaneous material included under the name 

 "dirt," which is, much of it, of organic origin, may 



