490 MEDICAL ENTOMOLOGY 



predaceous reduviids when they are about to pierce an insect with 

 the proboscis. 



In Madras Conorhinus rubrofasciatus is commonly infected with a 

 flagellate, Crithidia conorhini, Donovan. In Mauritius Lafont has found 

 eighty per cent infected with a similar flagellate. He states that he has 

 succeeded in infecting rats and mice with a trypanosome by inoculating 

 them intraperitoneally with the flagellates from the alimentary tract of the 

 bug. In the case of rats the parasite was only found in the peritoneum up 

 to thirty hours after inoculation and never in the peripheral blood; in mice 

 the flagellate appeared in the peripheral blood six to seven hours after 

 inoculation. The infection lasted from one to five days, after which 

 it disappeared ; most of the mice died. Lafont draws attention to the 

 possible role this flagellate may play in the case of man. In Mauritius 

 this bug is occasionally seen in houses, and has been caught in the act of 

 biting. It is not stated, however, whether the early stages of the bug are 

 to be found in houses as in the case of Conorhinus megistus (see below). 



The egg (Plate LX, fig. 2) of Conorhinus rubrofasciatus is rounded at 

 one end and flattened at the other, which forms a kind of operculum ; 



when first laid it is of creamy white colour, but it be- 

 Early stages . , f 



comes lemon yellow some time before the larva emerges. 



It measures 2 mm. in length and 1 mm. in breadth. The incubation 

 period lasts from twenty to thirty days according to the temperature. 

 The larva (Plate LX, fig. 3) has a bright lemon yellow abdomen and dark 

 brown head and thorax ; the distal half of the last antennal joint is light 

 brown. It is very active and will suck blood about three days after 

 hatching out. The larval stage lasts from ten to fifteen days, and during 

 this time one feed of blood is taken, very occasionally two, and then only 

 if the first is an incomplete feed. The first nymphal stage occupies from 

 fifteen to twenty days and at least three feeds are taken during this time. 

 The second stage lasts from forty to forty- five days and about five feeds 

 of blood are taken. The third is completed in about thirty-five days, 

 during which time five feeds of blood are taken, and the fourth and last 

 nymphal period lasts another forty days, with six or seven feeds of blood. 

 From the above observations it will be noted that in the laboratory the 

 larva of Conorhinus rubrofasciatus becomes an adult in from four and a 

 half to five months, and that during this period it will feed at least twenty 

 times. This period of growth was completed under the most favourable 

 conditions of food supply; it is very probable that under natural condi- 

 tions blood is not so easily obtained and that the larva takes from five 

 to five and a half months or longer to become an adult. From a large 



