The Bed-Bug Family 



the metasternum with the adult. With plant bugs this odor 

 evidently protects them by rendering them nauseous to their 

 bird and other vertebrate enemies. It persists with the bed- 

 bug; but here it is detrimental to the species since it reveals its 

 presence to its greatest enemy man. 



The belief that bed-bugs breed under the bark of certain 

 trees and that houses built of the wood of such trees will be 



Fig. 179. Cimex lectularius; adult. 

 (Redrawn from Marlatt.) 



infested with bugs, is due only to the resemblance which cer- 

 tain other bugs, especially the Aradidae, which normally live 

 under tree bark, have to the bed-bug. And then, too, from the 

 ability which the bed-bug has of undergoing prolonged fasts, 

 it may be found alive not only in houses which have been deserted 

 for a long time, but about old deserted camps in the woods. 



290 



