348 THE INSECTS 



The 



ferred with wash clothes. They have a penetrating odor when crushed. The 

 female deposits about 50 eggs at a time in cracks and in ten days 'they hatch out 

 into larvae which pass insensibly into adults by a series of five moultings; this deposit- 

 ing of eggs occurs about four times a year. 



The bedbug is very probably the intermediate host in kala-azar and it has been 

 incriminated in connection with typhus fever and relapsing fever. It can also 

 transmit plague. 



A. rotundata. In India the A. rotundata is the one encountered. It is of a dark 

 mahogany color, has a smaller head, narrower abdomen, thick rounded prothoracic 

 borders and is more densely covered with hairs than A. leclularia. The prothorax of 

 A . leclularia is flattened at the side. 



Reduviidae 



These bugs have a long narrow head and a distinct neck. The 

 antennae are long and slender. The antennae in the genus Conorhinus 

 are inserted about midway between the eyes and point of the head. 



Conorhinus sanguisuga. This is known as the Texas or Mexican bedbug, and 

 was formerly the foe of the common bedbug, but having gotten a taste for human 

 blood through the Cimex or Acanthia, it now prefers man. It is extending toward 

 the North. It has wings. The bites are much more severe than those of the 

 common bedbug. It is of a dark brown color, nearly an inch in length, with a long, 

 flat, narrow head and a short thick rostrum. They can run as well as fly. They 

 bite at night. 



Conorhinus megistus. This is called "Barbeiro" in Brazil on account of its 

 preference for biting the face. The Schizotrypanum cruzi undergoes a develop- 

 mental cycle in this bug which transmits the disease. 



SlPHONAPTERA 



These are laterally flattened, markedly chitinized, wingless insects 

 which undergo a complete metamorphosis. 



Pulicidse 



This family is divided into two subfamilies the Pulicinae and the 

 Sarcopsyllinae. In the former the female remains practically un- 

 changed with freedom of movement after fecundation, while in the 

 latter the abdomen becomes enormously distended with eggs, and the 

 female remains fixed in the burrow which she has made under the skin. 



Pulcinse. Formerly, with the exception of infection with Dipylidium caninum, 

 the fleas were only under suspicion as carriers of disease; ideas having been enter- 

 tained as to their being possible transmitters of relapsing fever, typhus fever and 

 kala-azar. Trypanosoma lewisi is transmitted by fleas, either Pulex irritans or 

 C. cams. The trypanosome undergoes development in the flea and the infecting 



