I 



140 THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 



They are very small insects, rarely measuring more than 

 one eighth of an inch in length. Their eggs are fastened to 

 leaves, and covered by a brown, sticky substance ; they 

 appear more like fungi than like the eggs of other insects 

 (Fig. 166). 



Family Acanthiid^E (Ac-an-thi'i-dae). / 



The Bed-bug and the Flower-bugs. 

 The Bed-bug, Acanthia lectularia (A-can'thi-a lec-tu-la'- 

 ri-a), is a well-known pest over the greater part 

 of the world. It is reddish brown in color, 

 and measures when full-grown from one-sixth 

 to one-fifth inch in length. The body is ovate 



Fig. 167.— Acan- . . 



thia lectularia. in outline and is very flat (rig. 107). It is 

 wingless, or has very short and rudimentary wing-covers. 



The Bed-bug is a nocturnal insect, hiding by day in the 

 cracks of furniture and beneath various objects. Bed-bugs 

 are easily destroyed by wetting the cracks in which they 

 hide with corrosive sublimate dissolved in alcohol. This is 

 sold by druggists under the name of bed-bug poison. Py- 

 rethrum powder blown into the cracks will destroy these 

 insects, and, unlike corrosive sublimate, is not poisonous to 

 man. A closely allied species, A. Jiirundinis (hir-un-di'nis) 

 occurs in nests of the barn-swallow. 



There are certain small bugs that are closely allied to the 

 Bed-bug, but which have wing-covers that are almost always 

 fully developed. These are the Flower-bugs. 

 They are found in a great variety of situations, 

 often upon trees and flowers, sometimes under 

 bark or rubbish. They are predaceous. Figure 

 168 represents a wing-cover of one of these insects. 



Family Capsid^e (Cap'si-dae). 

 The Leaf -bugs. 

 This is the largest family of the Heteroptera; the 

 members of it live chiefly upon the leaves of plants, 



