HEMIPTERA. 95 
or little states. Palzontology (the science of fossils) has in no 
way confirmed this opinion. 
The bug is not a gluttonous insect, always blood-thirsty ; on 
the contrary, its sobriety is remarkable. It is only after a pro- 
longed fast that it bites animals, and Audouin has stated that it 
can live a year and even two years without food. 
From time immemorial a number of different means have been 
employed for destroying these insects; but in spite of all, 
nothing is more difficult than to get rid of them from wood-work 
and paper-hangings when they have once infested them. In 
general, strong odours cause their death. And so, to rid oneself 
of these disagreeable guests, it has been recommended to use 
tobacco smoke, essence of turpentine, the fumes of sulphur, &c. 
Mercurial omtment and corrosive sublimate are also excellent 
means for their destruction ; and for the same purpose the merits 
of a plant belonging to the order Cruciferse, Lepidium ruderale, 
have been much vaunted ; and more recently still, the root of the 
Pyrethrum, a species of Camomile, reduced to powder, and blown 
into the furniture or wood-work. This powder is known and em- 
ployed at Paris under the name of “ poudre insecticide.” 
There are two other kinds of bugs (Acanthia) which attack men. 
The one is the Acanthia ciliata, which has been found in the 
houses of Kazan, and which differs from the bed bug not only in 
its form, but also in its habits. It does not live in companies, 
in the narrow cracks of furniture, but moves about alone, at a 
slow pace, over the walls or counterpanes of beds. Its beak is 
very long, and its bite is very painful, and produces obstinate 
swellings. 
The other species is the Acanthia rotundata, which is found in 
the Island of La Réunion, and attacks men in the same way as 
does the European bug. Two species of the same genus live as 
parasites on swallows and domestic pigeons. ‘There is another 
species which is peculiar to the bats of our climates. 
The Reduvius personatus, called also Fly Bug, by Geoffroy, the 
old historian of the insects of the environs of Paris, is common 
enough in France. It keeps to the houses, and is found especially 
near ovens and chimney-pieces. It is about three-quarters of an 
inch in length, oblong, flat on its upper side, brownish, has hori- 
