398 THE ANIMAL PARASITES OF MAN 



A characteristic feature in this animal is the peculiar odour it produces, 

 like many others in the same group of insects. This odour comes from 

 a clear, oily, volatile liquid secreted by glands in various parts of the 

 body. Although the normal food is man's blood, the bed bug can subsist 

 upon moist wood, dust and dirt that collects in crevices in floors, walls, 

 furniture, &c. The puncturing mouth consists of a fleshy under lip, 

 within which lie four thread-like hard filaments which pierce the flesh, 

 the blood being drawn up through the beak. 



The eggs are oval, white, with a projecting rim around one end ; 

 they are laid in cracks and crevices in batches of from twelve to fifty . 

 The egg stage lasts from seven to ten days. The larval stage so gradually 

 passes into the adult that one scarcely notices the change ; during its 

 growth the skin is cast five times, and at the change the little, wing- 

 pads are seen, showing that the adult stage is reached. The young 

 larvae are at first pale yellowish- white. Although eleven weeks is said to 

 be necessary for their development, the stages may be gone through much 

 more rapidly ; Howard and Marlatt 1 give seven weeks in some instances. 

 It seems pretty certain that these Cimex only take one meal of blood 

 between each moult and another preceding egg laying. F. V. T.] 



5. Cimex ciliatus, Eversmann, 1841. 



3*3 mm. in length, yellowish-red, thickly covered with hair ; 

 indigenous in Russia (Kasan). 



6. Cimex rotundatus, Signoret, 1852. 



Somewhat larger than the ordinary bed bug ; brownish-red in 

 colour, legs yellow. On the Island of Reunion, probably like the 

 former, only a variety of Cimex lectularius. 2 



Fam. Reduviidce. 



Head long, narrowed behind into a neck ; eyes large, prominent ; rostrum 

 thick and curved ; antennae moderately long, slender at the tip ; legs long 

 and stiff ; carnivorous. 



[7. Conorhinus sanguisuga, Lee. (the Blood-sucking Cone-nose). 



This bug is also known as the Texas or Mexican Bed Bug, 

 also as the .Big Bed Bug. It is particularly troublesome in the 

 Mississippi Valley in bedrooms. The bite is very severe and 



1 "Household Insects." Howard and Marlatt, Bull. No. 4 (N.S.) U.S. Dept. 

 Agriculture, p. 37, 1896. 



' 2 Landois, L., " Anat. v. Cimex lectularius " (Z. /. w. Z., 1868, xviii., p. 206 ; 1869, 

 xix., p. 206). Eversmann, E., " Qucedam insectorum species novce " (Bull. soc. Imp. 

 d. natur. Moscou, 1841, xiv., p. 351). Signoret, V., " Notice sur quelq. hemipt. nouv." 

 (Ann. soc. entomol., France, 1852, x., p. 539). 



