[This species is of considerable importance, as according to Patton it may act partly as the intermediary host of the piroplasma of kala-azar.
[Wenyon found at Bagdad that Cimex sp. would take up Leishmania from Oriental sore, and that the parasite developed into flagellate form. Patton came to the conclusion that the bed bug transmitted Oriental sore in Cambay, India, but Wenyon contests this view (vide Journ. Lond. School Trop. Med., 1912, ii, pt. 1, pp. 13–26). Franchini (Bull. Soc. Path, exot., 1912, v, No. 10, pp. 817–819) was unable to connect Cimex with this disease. At present nothing seems proved. Besides their possible connection with kala-azar, it has been shown by Howard and Clark (Journ. Exp. Med., 1912, xvi, No. 6, pp. 850–859) that they can carry the virus of poliomyelitis.
[This bed bug was originally described from the Island of Réunion in 1852 by Signoret. A similar insect was described from Burma by Fieber, in 1861, as C. macrocephalus. This is the same as Signoret’s species.
[The distribution given by Patton[363] is as follows: India, Burma, Assam, Malay, Aden, Islands of Mauritius and Réunion. Patton in this paper refers to an erroneous statement made in a recent edition of this book (the last English edition). As I have personally kept lectularius in moist dirt, wood and refuse for over two years, the statement as far as I am concerned is not erroneous. Moreover, since his doubting this fact the same experiment has been twice repeated with the same results. What they did and do persist on I cannot say.—F. V. T.] whilst collecting them. It is rounder and has shorter antennæ than
Cimex columbarius, Jenyns.
[This is common in parts of Europe in pigeon nests, and also amongst poultry (vide Report Econ. Zool. for year ending September 30, 1913, pp. 142–144, Theobald). It occurs in Britain on the latter and will attack man. I have personally been badly bitten C. lectularius. Jenyns also described a more pubescent species from swallows as C. hirundinis. I have recently received an account of the swallow bug invading a house in Kent and causing much annoyance.—F. V. T.]
Cimex ciliatus, Eversmann, 1841.
3·3 mm. in length, yellowish-red, thickly covered with hair; indigenous in Russia (Kasan).
[From a single specimen seen it is evidently distinct.—F. V. T.]
Family. Reduviidæ.