92 



Parasitic Arihropoda 



to do with the human disease. Brumpt has shown experimentally 

 that Cimex hemipterus may transmit Trypanosoma cruzi in its excre- 

 ment. 



Cimex boueti, occurring in French Guinea, is another species 

 attacking man. Its habits and general life history are the same as 

 for the above species. It is 3 to 4.5 mm. in length, 

 has vestigial elj^ra, and much elongated antennae and 

 legs. The extended hind legs are about as long as the 

 body. 



Cimex columbarius, a widely distributed species nor- 

 mally living in poultry houses and dovecotes, C.inodorus, 

 infesting poultry in Mexico, C. hirundinis, occurring in 

 the nests of swallows in Europe and Oeciacus vicarius 

 (fig. igi) occurring in swallow's nests in this cotmtry, 

 sanguisugus™^ are species which occasionally infest houses and attack 



Conorhinus sanguisugus, the cone-nosed bed-bug. We have seen 

 in our consideration of poisonous insects, that various species of 

 Reduviid bugs readily attack man. Certain of these are nocturnal 

 and are so commonly found in houses that they have gained the 

 name, of "big bed-bugs." The most noted of these, in the United 

 States, is Conorhinus sangiusugus (fig. 71), which is widely dis- 

 tributed in our Southern States. 



Like its near relatives, Conorhinus 

 sangiusugus is carnivorous in habit and 

 feeds upon insects as well as upon 

 mammalian and human blood. It is 

 reported as often occurring in poultry 

 houses and as attacking horses in 

 bams. The life history has been 

 worked out in considerable detail by 

 Marlatt , (1902), from whose accotmt we 

 extract the following. 



The eggs are white, changing to 

 yellow and pink before hatching. The 

 young hatch within twenty days 

 and there are four nymphal stages. 

 In all these stages the insect is active and predaceous, the mouth- 

 parts (fig. 72) being powerftilly developed. The eggs are normally 

 deposited, and the early stages are undoubtedly passed, out of doors, 



72. Beak of Conorhinus sanguisugus. 

 After Marlatt. 



