HEMIPTEKA. 93 



one on the top of the other, their heads in the direction of a centre 

 point. They are clothed in black, spotted with red. In the 

 neighbourhood of Paris the children call them "Suisses," probably 

 on account of the red on their bodies, that being the colour of 

 the uniform of the Swiss troops formerly in the service of France. 

 In Burgundy, the children call them " petits cockons rouges.' 1 

 They will be found described in Geoffrey's "Histoire des In- 

 sectes," under the name of the Eed Garden Bug. At the present 

 day they are placed in the genus Lygceus* When the bad weather 

 comes, these little " Suisses " take refuge under stones and the 

 bark of trees to pass the winter. During the whole of that season 

 they remain in a sort of torpid state. But in the first days of 

 spring they revive, and resume their ordinary habits. They suck the, 

 sap of vegetables, piercing the capsules of divers kinds of mallows 

 and always keeping themselves turned to- 

 wards the sun. 



The bug, properly so called, or bed bug, 

 (Acanthia lectularia or Cimex lectularius, Fig. 

 70), a most disagreeable and stinking insect, 

 abounds in dirty houses, principally in 

 towns, and above all in those of warm 

 countries. It lives in beds, in wood- work, 

 and paper-hangings. There is no crack, Fig. 70. s<fd bag (Acanthia 

 however narrow it may be, into which it is '"*"*>. magnified. 

 unable to slip. It is a night bird, shunning the light. " Noc- 

 turnum fcetidum animal, " says Linneeus. Its body is oval, about 

 the fifth of an inch in length, flat, soft, of a brown colour, and 

 covered with little hairs. Its head is provided with two hairy 

 antennae, and two round black eyes, and has a short beak, curved 

 directly under its thorax, and lying in a shallow groove when the 

 animal is at rest. This beak, composed of three joints, contains 

 four thin, straight, and sharp hairs. The thorax is, as it were, 

 winged on the sides. The abdomen is very much developed, 

 orbicular, composed of eight segments, very much depressed, 

 and easily crushed by the fingers. The elytra are rudimentary. 

 It has no membraneous wings. The tarsi have three articulations, 

 of which the last is provided with two strong hooks. 



* This species is Lygoeus militaris. ED. 



