HEMIPTERA.’ 93 
one on the top of the other, their heads in the direction of a centre 
point. They are red, spotted with black. In the neighbourhood 
of Paris, the children call them “ Swisses,” probably on account 
of the red on their bodies, that being the colour of the uniform 
of the Swiss troops formerly in the service of France. In Bur- 
gundy, the children call them “ petits cochons rouges.” They will 
be found described in Geoffroy’s ‘ Histoire des Insectes,’”’ under 
the name of the Red Garden Bug. At the present day they are 
placed in the genus Lygeus.* When the bad weather comes, 
these little “ Suwisses” take refuge under stones and the bark 
of trees to pass the winter. During the whole of that season 
they remain in a sort of torpid state. But in the first days of 
spring they revive, and resume their ordinary habits. They 
suck the sap of vegetables, piercing the capsules of divers kinds 
of mallows, and always keeping in the sunshine. 
The Bug, popularly so called, or Bed Bug (Acanthia lectularia, 
or Cimex lectularius, Fig. 70), a most disagreeable and stinking 
insect, abounds in dirty Thats, principally 
in towns, and above all in those of warm 
countries. It lives in beds, in wood-work, 
and paper-hangings. There is no crack, 
however narrow it may be, into which it is 
unable to slip. It is nocturnal, shunning 
the light. ‘ Nocturnum fcetidum animal,” 
says Linneus. Its body is oval, about the 
fifth of an inch in length, flat, soft, of a brown ae Le ae 
colour, and covered with little hairs. Its F 
head is provided with two hairy antenne, and two round black 
eyes, and has a short beak, curved directly under its thorax, and 
lying in a shallow groove when the animal is at rest. This beak, 
composed of three joints, contains four thin, straight, and sharp 
hairs. The thorax is dilated at the sides. The abdomen is very 
much developed, orbicular, composed of eight segments, very 
much depressed, and easily crushed by the fingers. The hemelytra 
are rudimentary. It has no membranous wings. The tarsi have 
three articulations, of which the last is provided with two strong 
hooks. 

* This species is Lygeus militaris.—Ep. 
