524 Sleeping Sickness 



inhabited houses but never those that have been abandoned. _ In houses which 

 are old or badly kept they are to be found in cracks and holes in the walls, where 

 they lay their eggs; the early stages, which are wingless, crawl out of their resting 

 places in the walls so soon as the lights are put out and make their way to the beds 

 of the occupants of the house. The adults behave in the same manner, but 

 as they are powerful fliers, they can reach the people who sleep in hammocks. 

 The bite is said to be painless and to leave no mark." 



" The eggs of L. megistus are of a creamy white color and are laid in batches of 

 from eight to twelve, and as many as forty-five such batches may be laid. Ac- 

 cording to Neiva they hatch in twenty-five to forty days. The larva is of a 

 uniform hght color when it emerges, becoming darker later; it takes its first 

 feed from five to eight days after emerging from the egg, and the second from 

 the fifteenth to the twentieth day; it changes its skin (first nymphal stage) after 

 about forty-five days. The second molt takes place during the second or third 

 month, and the third during the fourth or sixth month. The fourth molt occurs 

 about the igoth day after the larva has hatched out from the egg; this stage 

 lasts at least forty-two days. Neiva states that this time is the most critical 

 period in its life, and that large numbers of them die. After the next molt 

 the adult stage is reached, and eight days later they are ready to suck blood; 

 egg-laying commences about the fifty-fifth day after the first feed. One female 

 kept under observation by Neiva for about three and a half months laid 218 

 eggs in thirty-eight batches. Under favorable conditions of food supply the 

 cycle from egg to egg is completed in about 324 days." 



This bug, when experimentally infected with Schizotrypanum cruzi, transmitted 

 the infection to monkeys, guinea-pigs, rabbits and dogs. Both males and females 

 bite and may transmit the parasites. 



