140 
THE STUDY OF INSECTS. 
They are very small insects, rarely measuring more than 
one eighth of an inch in length. Their eggs are fastened to 
leaves, and covered by a brown, sticky substance; they 
appear more like fungi than like the eggs of other insects 
(Fig. 166). 
Family ACANTHinxs (Ac-an-thi'i-dae). 
The Bed-bug and the Flower-bugs . 
The Bed-bug, AcantJiia lectularia (A-can'thi-a lec-tu-la'- 
ri-a), is a well-known pest over the greater part 
of the world. It is reddish brown in color, 
and measures when full-grown from one-sixth 
to one-fifth inch in length. The body is ovate 
Fig. 167.— Acan- . . /T -,. /? \ T * 
thia lectularia. m outline and is very flat (rig. 107). It is 
wingless, or has very short and rudimentary wing-covers. 
The Bed-bug is a nocturnal insect, hiding by day in the 
cracks of furniture and beneath various objects. Bed-bugs 
are easily destroyed by wetting the cracks in which they 
hide with corrosive sublimate dissolved in alcohol. This is 
sold by druggists under the name of bed-bug poison. Py- 
rethrum powder blown into the cracks will destroy these 
insects, and, unlike corrosive sublimate, is not poisonous to 
man. A closely allied species, A . hirundinis (hir-un-di'nis) 
occurs in nests of the barn-swallow. 
There are certain small bugs that are closely allied to the 
Bed-bug, but which have wing-covers that are almost always 
fully developed. These are the Flower-bugs. 
They are found in a great variety of situations, 
often upon trees and flowers, sometimes under 
bark or rubbish. They are predaceous. Figure IG# l68 ‘ 
168 represents a wing-cover of one of these insects. 
Family CAPSID^E (Cap'si-dse). 
The Leaf-bugs. 
This is the largest family of the Heteroptera; the 
members of it live chiefly upon the leaves of plants, 
