OCTOBEK 1, 1890.] 



KNOWLEDGE 



227 



it looks like then, and what its powers of flight may be. 



That such a disgusting insect should add to its resources 

 the power of flight, whereby it might become increasingly 

 annoying by settlmg on the bodies of respectable citizens 

 as they walk the streets, and by regarding every open 

 window in even well-to-do neighbourhoods as an invitation 

 to enter, would immensely increase the loathing with 

 which it is now regarded in respectable society, and it is a 

 comfort to know that no record exists of winged bed-bugs 

 having ever been met with in this country. There have 

 been reports that such specimens have been seen some- 

 where in the East, but there appears to be no authentic 

 record of any such occurrence ; still, it is well to bear in 

 mind that such a thing is a possibility, though most likely 

 an exceedingly remote one. K wings were present, there 

 would probably be no cuneus to the elytra. 



The acquisition of wings by insects that are usually 

 unwinged, of course greatly facilitates the spread of the 

 species, which woiald otherwise have to trust, for extend- 

 ing the area of their distribution, to their own legs, or to 

 conveyance upon or by means of some other animal 

 gifted with superior powers of locomotion. As the bed- 

 bug, however, has chosen to attach itself to the most 

 migratory animal in the world, and gains all the advan- 

 tage of man's artificial as well as natural means of loco- 

 motion, it would seem that a winged form is not a matter 

 of such prime importance to it as to wild species that do 

 not possess these extra advantages, and therefore the mere 

 fact of the bed-bug's parasitism probably militates against 

 its occurrence as a fully-developed insect. 



There is not much externally to distinguish the sexes ; 

 in both the abdomen is broad and flat, but that of the 

 male is rather the smaller and narrower of the two, and 

 there are differences in the form of the terminal seg- 

 ments. In most of the field-bugs the abdomen is rather 

 widely bordered on each side by a flat margin, distinctly 

 marked oft' from the rest of the body. In the bed-bug, 

 however, this margin, which is called the amiw.rirum, is 

 reduced to an exceedingly narrow line, and is scarcely 

 perceptible. 



Turning the bug over on its back, we now proceed to 

 examine the underside. The chief point to be noticed 

 here is the position and attachment of the legs. They 

 are all let into hollows in the thorax, as usual, by the 

 coxje (Fig. 10). The coxfe of the first x^air are almost 

 close together, there being only room for the tip of the 

 rostrum between them, but the other two pau's are sepa- 

 rated by a considerable interval, and the space between 

 them is occupied by a raised surface covering the glands 

 by which the volatile fluid is secreted which imparts to 

 the insects the disagreeable odour they are noted for. The 

 glands open by a very fine aperture situated beneath a 

 kind of flap, which runs from the mesothorax down be- 

 tween the coxii' of the hind legs. 



in the possession of these odoriferous glands the bed- 

 bug is by no means exceptional ; it is one of the usual 

 characteristics of the order, and the odour of some of the 

 larger wild species is far more powerful, though of the 

 same class. The liquid secreted is a colourless oily sub- 

 stance, and it would appear to be continually being given 

 off during life. Its smell is of a compound nature, and 

 a keen-scented person will detect, under-lying the more 

 disagreeable olomtnts, the scent of a freshly-cut cucumber. 

 That the disagreeable character of the bed-bug's secretion 

 is not due to the animal nature of its food appears from 

 the fact that a precisely similar odour is exhaled by those 

 species that subsist on vegetable juices. In soiiie wild 

 species the fluid seems to be of a dift'ereut constitution, as 

 it is quite pleasantly fragrant; ('unniua sitliiijitfiu>i, for ex- 



ample, a grey species which is found running on the 



ground in heathy and sandy places, exhales, when handled, 

 a perfume which has been compared to that of jargonelle 

 pears. But of whatever natm-e the scent may be, it is no 

 doubt protective in function, and the insects are by its 

 presence rendered nauseous and distasteful to birds and 

 other enemies. The bed-bug does not seem, however, as 

 it is now circumstanced, to derive much protection from 

 its odour, for, apart from its presence being thus plainly 

 advertised to man, the common cockroach wUl, notwith- 

 standing the smell, devour it with avidity ; and no doubt 

 tragedies of this kind are of nightly occurrence in the 

 slums of seaport towns, where both of these intruders have 

 taken up their quarters and multiphed till their armies 

 have amounted to tens of thousands. Here, then, is a 

 good word for the cockroach, although it may fairly be 

 questioned whether the remedy is not almost as bad as 

 the disease. 



(To be continued.) 



VILLAGE COMMUNITIES.* 



By Canon Is.a^vc Taylor, Litt.D., LL.D. 



OUR knowledge of primitive civilization is derived 

 largely from the study of survivals. Survivals 

 may be defined as anomalous traditional usages, 

 seemingly meaningless or useless, which originated 

 in some state of things which has passed away, 

 but which by the force of custom have continued to exist. 

 That the Queen still gives her assent to Acts of Parlia- 

 ment in a formula couched in Norman French is, for 

 instance, a sm-vival fi'om the time when the sovereign of 

 England was a Norman Duke, unable to speak EngUsh. 

 A judge's wig is a survival of the long hair which came 

 into fashion at the Restoration ; and the black patch on 

 the crown, with its white fringe, is a survival of the black 

 skull cap that was worn over the coif of white silk or 

 linen which formed the head-dress of the serjeants-at-law 

 from whom the judges were selected. The procurations 

 paid to an archdeacon are a money composition in heu of 

 his ancient right of quartering himself and his attendant 

 horsemen on the parochial clergy during liis \isitations. 

 Fee-farm rents, as they are called, are in many cases 

 survivals of payments for services no longer rendered. 

 The writer pays a fee-farm rent of 5s. 4d., which repre- 

 .sents a composition for a certain number of thraves or 

 sheaves of corn, which his predecessors in title rendered to 

 the abbot of Beverley, for his services in " correcting the 

 villaus " of a certain parish who might avail themselves 

 of the privilege of sanctuary which was conferred by 

 Athelstan on the monks. 



The unchronicled history of our English \illages is 

 largely to be recovered from the study of such anomalous 

 survivals. Sir Henry Maine and Jlr. Scebohm in this 

 country, \'on JIaurer and Professor Nasse in Germany, 

 have led the way in such researches, and Mr. Uomme has 

 proved himself a diligent disciple of these masters of the 

 science. Ten years ago, in his book on I'riiiiititc Folic 

 ^f|lot.1, lie collected a number of cases of sur\-ivals of 

 local self-government as exercised in open-air shire- 

 moots, hundred-moots, and manorial courts ; and more 

 recently, in his lAtemture of Local InMiUUiom, he has 

 compiled a useful bibliography of the subject. The 

 editor of the Contemporary Science Series has there- 



* The Viltaj/e Community : with special refirence to the Origin and 

 Formofils Survivals in Britain. By G. L. Gomme. [Contemporary 

 Science Series.] London : W.iUor Scott, 1890. 



