32 
• HIIYXCOTA. 
allied genus, Vella , is more prettily marked than the 
preceding one, having orange, white, and black spots. 
The only British species, V. currens , about 3 lines in 
length, is very common on clear streams, associating in 
companies ; the winged form is rare. I must not forget 
to mention the long thread-like form of Limnobates 
stagnorum; it is about 5 lines long, and common in 
ponds covered with duckweed (Lemna), and sluggish in 
its movements. Fig. 9 is Rydrometra lacustris. 
Of the Cimicidw or Bed-bug family there is but one 
genus, and that, considering the unpleasant feelings 
associated with the insects name, is one too many. 
These insects are flat, more or less round, legs rather 
slender and tolerably long ; there is a mere indication 
of wings in a pair of short scale-like appendages; that 
they have a sharp proboscis can be attested by many a 
sleepless victim. The introduction of the Bed-bug 
(Cimex lectularius ) into this country has been a subject 
of discussion. The obnoxious creature appears to have 
been known to the ancient Greeks and Komans, by the 
names of ^opig and cimex. Bacchus, in “Aristophanes’s 
Comedy of the Frogs, ,J before his expedition into 
Hades, to bring Euripides back to the upper world, asks 
Hercules to recommend, amongst other things needful 
on his journe} 7 , the inns where there were fewest 
bugs:— 
u7rov Koptis uXiyioroi. 
( Batr . 114). 
AVestwood quotes Southall as stating that the bug’s 
first introduction into London was after the Great Fire 
in 1666: “learned men united in thinking that they 
were imported with new deal timber, as the bugs were 
