HEMIPTERA . 
137 
Family Reduviid^e (Red-u-vi'i-dae). 
The Assassin-bugs . 
There are many bugs which destroy their fellows, but 
the members of this family are so pre-eminently predaceous 
that we call them the Assassin-bugs. Although they usually 
live on the blood of insects, in some cases they attack the 
higher animals, and occasionally even man suffers from 
them. Care should be used in collecting them, as some 
are apt to inflict painful stings with their beaks. In this 
family the beak is only three-jointed, and when not in use 
the tip rests in a groove between the fore legs. The family is 
a very large one, containing more than a hundred American 
species. 
In the Atlantic States one sometimes finds, in basements 
and in rooms but little used, a bug which presents a very 
curious appearance from having its body and legs completely 
covered with dust, so that it looks like a living mass of lint 
as it moves around. This is the Masked Bed-bug Hunter, 
Opsicoetus personatus (Op-si-cce'tus pcr-so-na'tus). This 
species infests houses for the sake of preying 
upon bed-bugs; it also feeds upon flies and other 
insects. Its mask is worn only during youth, and 
consists of particles of dust and fibres which ad¬ 
here to a sticky substance with which the body, 
legs, and antennae are covered. The adult is 
black or very dark brown, and is represented by 
Figure 160. 
A closely allied species, which is black marked siccetus per - 
with red, insinuates itself into beds for a less com- sonatus - 
mendable purpose than that of its ally, for it sucks human 
blood at first hand. This insect occurs in the Southern and 
Western States; it is the Big Bed-bug, Conorhinus sanguisu- 
gus (Co-nor'hi-nus san-gui-su'gus). Nearly all the members 
of this family, however, live upon trees and other plants, and 
prey upon insects. 
