204: HEMIPTERA. 



FAMILY VII. Cimicidce. 



Body broad, depressed ; antennae four-jointed, the apical joints 

 slender ; rostrum rather long ; wings generally rudimentary ; 

 habits carnivorous. 



The type of this family is Cimex Lectularius, Linn., the common 

 Bed-Bug, which is unfortunately too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. It has always abounded in Africa, where it is possibly 

 indigenous, but has now been conveyed with merchandise over 

 almost the whole world. Westwood mentions that the first 

 record of its appearance in England was in 1503. At that time it 

 excited great alarm, some ladies having mistaken its bites for 

 plague-spots. They sent for the doctor in consternation, but were 

 highly amused when he detected and showed them the insect. 

 At the present day the insect often leads to consternation, but 

 hardly to a doctor's visit, and its discovery certainly never gives 

 occasion for amusement. 



The bed-bug, however, continued to be of very rare occurrence 

 in Britain till after the Fire of London in 1666, when great 

 numbers were imported in foreign timber, since which time it has 

 been only too plentiful. But there are several interesting questions 

 in its habits, etc., which still require investigation. Fowls, 

 pigeons, swallows, and bats are infested by closely-allied species, 

 or perhaps by slightly modified forms of the common bug. It 

 will breed and multiply in empty houses, and probably feeds on 

 the various insects which are found in such localities. Blood- 

 thirsty as it is, it is far too abundant for man to be its sole, or 

 even its ordinary prey, though it is sufficiently sagacious to climb 

 to the ceiling, and drop upon the bed, if it is unable to obtain 

 access to it from the floor. However, since the introduction of 

 iron bedsteads, bugs can no longer multiply in the substance of the 

 very bedstead itself, as was formerly the case ; and washing with a 

 solution of carbolic acid will help to destroy these as well as many 

 others of the insect pests which infest our houses. They are very 

 subject to the attacks of various other insects, and are a favourite 

 delicacy with the Cockroach and the Wheel Bug, though neither of 

 these insects are to be regarded as desirable household companions. 



In hot countries the bug occasionally acquires wings ; and it 

 is stated that the negro cabins in the Southern States of America 

 are infested by a bug two or three times larger than the ordinary 

 species, but which does not yet seem to have fallen under the 

 notice of entomologists. 



