400 SANITARY ENTOMOLOGY 



holes in the walls, where they lay their eggs. The early stages, which are 

 wingless, crawl out of their resting places in the walls as 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 pow- 

 erful fliers they can reach people who sleep in hammocks. The bite is said 

 to be painless and to leave no mark; this is quite unlike the bite of 

 Triatoma rubrofasciata, which, in the case of some people, leaves a dis- 

 tinct mark for weeks. The eggs of T. megista are laid in batches of from 

 8 to 12, and as many as 45 such batches may be laid. They hatch in from 

 25 to 50 days. A generation requires about 324 days. 



Triatoma sanguisuga (Le Conte) is a native of the United States 

 and is called the Texas bedbug, or the "blood-sucking cone nose." It 

 comes into the houses and sucks the blood of man. It is also found in 

 chicken houses and horse stalls, but its normal food is supposed to be the 

 body juices of other insects, including the bedbug. 



A number of other species are recorded as causing severe bites on 

 man. 



The bedbugs Cimex lectvlarms Linnaeus, C. Tiermpterus Fabricius 

 (^rotimdatus Signoret),and C. houeti Brumpt, attack man, while C. Mnuw- 

 dinis Jenyns attacks the swallow, C. columbarius Jenyns the pigeon, and 

 C. pipistrelli Jenyns the bat. The first named is cosmopolitan, the second 

 tropical and subtropical, the third South American. The first two are 

 essentially domestic species. During the daytime these species hide in 

 cracks and crevices in the beds, furniture, and walls of bedrooms. They 

 usually feed at night but will not uncommonly feed in the daytime if they 

 can do so without detection. The most characteristic feature of the bed- 

 bug is the very distinct and disagreeable odor which it exhales. The 

 absence of wings in the bedbug is of great advantage in control work, 

 as it confines its range to those points it can reach in its roaming. The 

 €ggs are white, oval objects having a little projection run around one 

 edge, and may be found in batches of from 6 to 50 in cracks and 

 crevices where the parent bugs go for concealment. A single female may 

 lay as many as 190 eggs. The eggs hatch in a week or ten days in warm 

 weather, but require a considerably longer time in cold weather. The 

 young are yellowish white at first, but in succeeding molts become darker 

 and darker brown. There is very little important difference in the 

 appearance of nymphal and adult stages. There are five molts covering 

 varying lengths of seven to eleven or more weeks. The bedbug is capable 

 of living for long periods without food. Normally fed bugs may live 

 almost a year, and partly grown specimens have been kept 60 days 

 without food. The bite of the bedbug is very poisonous to some per- 

 sons, and their presence is sufHcient to cause uneasiness and loss of 

 sleep. (Figs. 74-77.) 



