THE BEDBUG AND CONE-NOSE. 



39 



Texas or Mexican bedbug, or simply tlie big bedbug. Until recently it 

 has been a rare visitant in houses, and is still practically unknown in 

 Eastern cities, but in country places, particularly in the Mississippi 

 Valley, is now often found in bedrooms, and its bite is very severe and 

 painful, resulting in much more pronounced swelling and inflammation 

 than in the case of the bedbug. 



The cone-nose belongs to the group of true bags which includes 

 predaceous species, or those which normally feed on other insects 

 rather than on plant juices. The members of the genus Conorhinus 

 are mostly South American, and, on the authority of Burmeister, 



part at least, on the 



have the habit in the adult state of 



blood of mammals. 

 The normal food of 

 our species is, how- 

 ever, unquestionably 



other insects, and its 

 liking for human 

 blood is evidently a 

 habit of recent ac- 

 quisition and limited 

 to the full-grown in- 

 sect, and probably 

 only a small percent- 

 age of these ever 

 taste blood. Miss 

 Berth a K i m b a 1 1 

 (Trans. Kans. Acad. 

 Sci., Vol. XXIV, p. 

 128, 1896) reports 

 that they are often 

 found in poultry 

 houses, and that 

 when abundant they 

 attack horses in 

 barns, and probably 

 other domestic animals. ' In houses it has been found with bedbugs, and 

 w ill unquestionably feed upon them, especially if it can secure speci- 

 mens already charged with human blood, and it has been actually 

 observed eating what was taken to be a young- roach. In captivity Miss 

 Kimball has succeeded in feeding both voting ami adults on house tlies. 

 That the blood-taking habit may be easily acquired is shown by the fact 

 that many common plant bugs, if captured, will pierce the tlesh. and 

 several of the species which are attracted to light at night and settle 

 on one's hand will pierce the skin and till themselves with blood. 



The accompanying figures of this insect represent the egg, newly 

 hatched larva-, and last larval stage, drawn to the same scale tig. in. 

 and the pupal stages and the adult, al>o drawn to a scale, but less 



Fig. 10. — Conorhinus sangwUuga: a. first pnpal stag ad papal 



stage; c. adult bug; d. same, lateral view — all enlarged 

 seal*- (original). 



