THE BED-BUG 



301 



fly- bug, which is occasionally found in houses, and preys 

 upon them to a large extent. It belongs to the order 

 Hemiptera, and indeed is not very remotely related to 

 the bed-bug itself. It is called Reduvius personatus, and 

 is a large dark-brown insect, about two-thirds of an inch 

 long (Fig. 99). Both pairs of wings are fully developed, 

 and it is a good flyer, being active chiefly at night ; it is 

 readily attracted by a light, and 

 hence sometimes flies in at the 

 open windows of rooms in which 

 a light is burning. In its larval 

 and nymph condition it has the 

 remarkable habit of enveloping 

 itself in a coating of dust and bits 

 of rubbish, the whole surface, in- 

 cluding legs and antennae, being 

 thus covered. The antennae, which 

 are slender, become by this process 

 apparently as stout as the legs, 

 and hence the insect has the 

 appearance of an eight-legged 

 creature, and might be mistaken FIG J 

 for a spider, but for the deliberate- 

 ness of its movements. The refuse 

 matter simply rests on the skin, and may be removed by 

 brushing with a camel's-hair brush. This insect is one 

 of the largest of our British Hemiptera, and is a rapa- 

 cious creature, entirely carnivorous in its tastes. It 

 destroys various kinds of insects, and the bed-bug 

 amongst the number. Of course the insects are not 

 devoured ; they are pierced by the short proboscis or 

 rostrum, which is constructed similarly to that of the 

 bed-bug itself, and only their juices sucked out. 



Several plants were formerly used as cimicif uges, their 



