24 



THE INSECTS TO WHICH THE NAME •< KISSING-BUG 

 APPLIED DURING THE SUMMER OF 1899. 



By L. 0, Howard. 



BECAME 



In a paper read before the Zoological Section of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science 1 the writer gave some account 

 of the so called "kissing-bug" craze, which, originating in the city 

 of Washington, in June, 1899, spread over almost the entire United 

 States, and which, encouraged by the newspapers, resulted in one of 

 the most interesting cases of widespread popular alarm arising from a 

 comparatively insignificant cause which has occurred in the present 

 scientific and matter-of-fact century. 



While very many different insects have been brought to entomolo- 

 gists as undoubted specimens of the kissing-bug, including a large 

 number of perfectly harmless forms, several species of heteropterous 

 insects, each one of which is capable of inflicting 

 a more or less severe wound with its beak, have 

 helped to authenticate the scare, and it seems 

 true that two of them, namely, Melanolestes 

 jncipes and Eeduvius personatus, have been more 

 abundant than usual this year, at least around 

 Washington. They have been captured in a 

 number of instances while biting people, and one 

 or the other of them is undoubtedly responsible 

 for the original cases in the Emergency Hospital 

 at Washington, which gave rise to the first 

 newspaper stories. 



The writer has thought it advisable to bring 

 together an account of six of the most prominent 

 of these bugs, which with greater or less fre- 

 quency pierce the skin of human beings, and to 

 illustrate them, as a matter of record. 



Opsicoetes personatus, also kuown as Eeduvius iiersonatus (fig. 18), 

 and which has been termed the u cannibal bug," is an European species 

 introduced into this country at some unknown date, but possibly follow- 

 ing close in the wake of the bedbug. In Europe this species haunts 

 houses for the purpose of preying upon bedbugs. Riley in his well- 

 known article on u Poisonous insects," published in Wood's Reference 

 Handbook of the Medical Sciences, states that if a fly or another insect is 

 offered to the cannibal bug it is first touched with the antenna?, a sud- 

 den spring follows, and at the same time the beak is thrust into the 

 prey. The young specimens are covered with a glutinous substance to 

 which bits of dirt and dust adhere. They move deliberately, with a 

 long pause between each step, the step being taken in a jerky manner. 

 The distribution of the species as given by Reuter in his Monograph 

 of the Genus Reduvius is: Europe to the middle of Sweden, Caucasia, 



Fig. 18. — Eeduvius (Opsiccetes) 

 2)ersonatus : About twice nat- 

 ural size (original). 



Published in the Popular Science Monthly for November, 1899. 



