292 
Acanthia lectularia 
curved (Fig. 20). At the base of this brush, and on the anterior side 
of the tibia, is a group of four long stout simple spines, and at the opposite 
side of the joint are three very strong spines blunted at the point. 
On the first tarsus at its apex is one stout spine from whose base springs 
one very long pointed hair or bristle, the purpose of which the writer 
has failed to determine (Figs. 19 and 20). The third tarsus bears the two 
claws and the empodium (Fig. 21), on whose surface are lateral ridges 
which evidently serve to inerease the bug’s foothold. In the bee or the 
house fly the empodium enables it to walk suspended from glass. This 
the bug cannot do, in fact it has difficulty in walking at all on glass. 
The terminal claws are stout, strong, and well adapted for keeping a 
tight hold. To further enable the insect to obtain a good grip, the coxae 
have on each outer surfaee a stout prominence which fits into a cor¬ 
responding depression on the femur, so that the creature when it holds 
fast to anything can, so to speak, “lock” its legs and thus render itself 
rigid (Fig. 22). 
According to Douglas and Scott, “ The abdomen of the Rhynchota 
in its greatest development consists of nine segments... of which only 
the first six are proper abdominal segments, the last three. . . differ in 
form more or less from the others, and subserve the functions of the 
sexual organs. (In some families) we find apparently seven abdo¬ 
minal segments, as the first genital segment retains entirely the form of 
an abdominal segment.” 
The writer has done no comparative anatomy of the Rhynchota, 
and hence is not in a position to give the segmental homology of the 
various parts seen in the two sexes of bed biig, so he contents himself 
with merely describing them. 
The only peculiarity in the abdomen of the bug common to both 
sexes, is that the first four segments are different from the other three, 
as they bear in the middle line on the ventral surfaee a broad shallow 
groove formed by a slight invagination of the chitin, and well supplied 
with bristles. This portion, when the bug begins to feed, is the first to 
respond to the internal pressure and evaginate. Continued feeding 
and consequent lengthening brings the underlap of the segments into 
view, as already mentioned. This groove seems to be what Messrs 
Douglas and Scott refer to as the ridge which “ extends from each 
side...as far as the fourth segment.” The writer finds the groove 
to be present in both sexes, and not only in the male as held by 
them. 
Each of the abdominal segments bears a couple of spiracles on the 
