FAMILIES LTG.EID.E AND CIMICIDiE. 169 



Lygseidse. 



Antenn.e are four-jointed, inserted directly on a line drawn from the eyes to the base of 

 the rostrum. The body is narrow. The membranous portion of the hemelytra is furnished 

 with about five nervures : tarsi three-jointed. 



The species are small in size, and resemble the Coreidje in form : some are marked with 

 bright colors. 



To this family belongs the chinch-bug, which figured so largely in Wisconsin in 1845, 

 and was described in the Prairie Farmer. According to Dr. Harris, it is the 



Lygjeus leucopterus ( Say). Wkitewinged Lygeus. 



This insect I have not seen. Its wing-covers are white, marked with an oval black spot 

 on a central line. The body is black and downy ; the beak, legs, antennae at the base, and 

 hinder edge of the thorax reddish yellow. Length three-twentieths of an inch. 



The young and immature are bright red, but change to brown and then to black, and 

 always marked with a white band across the back ( Harris). 



It appears that the wheat and cornfields of the West have suffered severely from this 

 insect. 



CimicicU'e. 



The next family has received the name Cimicidje, and contains the bedbug, an insect too 

 well known to require any very minute description for its identification. 



Cimex lectularius ( Linnaeus). 

 Body depressed or flat : antennae four-jointed ; thorax sublimate ; abdomen circular ; 

 wings rudimentary, scale-like ; tarsi three-jointed. 

 The history of this bug is not uninteresting, and it is not yet decided what country is 

 entitled to the honor of having first given it birth. The English entomologists say that it 

 was unknown in London, or in England, until after the great fire of 1666 ; and it is as- 

 serted by some that it was about this time introduced into England from America, in the 

 fir timber imported to rebuild the city. This is partly sustained by the fact that it is still 

 unknown in some of the remoter parts of the kingdom. It is further proved that Shake- 

 speare was unacquainted with it, as no mention is made of it in his writings. Whether this 

 fact is decisive of the question, I leave it for others to say ; only I would observe that it 

 seems to me that none of its habits are calculated to awaken poetical associations. On the 

 other hand, according to the statement of Westwood, it appears to have been known as 

 early as 1503. 



[ Agricultural Report — Vol. v.] 22 



