GO 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Fleas (Fig. 37) belong to the order Siphonaptera, a name derived from the sucking 

 apparatus of the month and the absence of wings in the adult insect. The body is oval 

 *ji.„M»^v an d 8 rea ^y compressed, allowing the insect to move 



freely between the hairs of the animal upon which it 

 lives ; it is also very hard and smooth, enabling the 

 creature to slip away from between the fingers of its 

 captor or the teeth of a dog. Its escape is also 

 facilitated by its long and powerful legs, which enable 

 it to leap an immense distance when compared with 

 the size of its small body. Its eggs are laid between 

 the hairs of the infested animal, but are not fasten? d 

 to them, so that when the animal moves about or lies 

 down they are shaken off to the floor or ground. 

 The larva, which is very minute and rarely seen, 

 except by those who search for it for purposes of 

 study, lives upon the animal and vegetable matter 

 contained in the dust to be found in the cracks of 

 floors or the sleeping-places of animals. The frequent sweeping and scrubbing of the 

 rooms in well-ordered households is, no doubt, an effectual preventive of their development. 



Remedies. — Should a dog or cat be found to be infested with fleas it should be 

 thoroughly dusted with insect powder, and its sleeping place turned out and cleaned. 

 Any bedding it has lain upon should be burnt and fresh material such as straw or shav- 

 ings, be supplied and frequently renewed. The kennel should also be washed inside with 

 some coal oil or benzine. If any rooms in a house are infested, the carpets or rugs 

 should be taken up and thoroughly beaten and shaken out of doors and the floors scrubbed 

 with hot soap and water. An ingenious plan for exterminating the lively adults was 

 adopted by a Professor in one of the buildings of Cornell University. He tied sheets of 



Fig. 37.— Adult flea (Pulex serraticeps) : 



a, egg, both much enlarged. (After 



Howard). 



***>*&?■< 



Fig. 38.— a Female bed-bug {Ciinex lectularius)gorged 

 with blood ; b same, from below— much enlarged 

 (after Marlatt). 



sticky fly-paper,|with the sticky side out, around the legs of the janitor of the building 

 and kept him walking for some hours up and down the floor of the infested room. 

 Nearly, if not all, the fleas jumped on his ankles, as their invariable habit is, and were 

 caught by the fly paper ! 



The Bed-bug (Fig. 38) is, unhappily, a well-known pest all the world over, and 

 though usually confined to houses of the meaner sort where cleanliness is not regarded as 

 a virtue, it frequently finds its way into well-ordered households, to the great dismay and 

 horror of the inmates. It belongs to the order Hemiptera, which includes the true bugs, 

 a race of insects provided with a piercing and sucking beak, and usually furnished when 

 fully grown with two pairs of wings, the first]pair of which are thickened at the base like 



