Fig. 71.
Egg of Bug, magnified.
The Bug, popularly so called, or Bed Bug (Acanthia lectularia, or Cimex lectularius, [Fig. 70]), a most disagreeable and stinking insect, abounds in dirty houses, principally in towns, and above all in those of warm countries. It lives in beds, in wood-work, and paper-hangings. There is no crack, however narrow it may be, into which it is unable to slip. It is nocturnal, shunning the light. "Nocturnum fœtidum animal," says Linnæus. Its body is oval, about the fifth of an inch in length, flat, soft, of a brown colour, and covered with little hairs. Its head is provided with two hairy antennæ, and two round black eyes, and has a short beak, curved directly under its thorax, and lying in a shallow groove when the animal is at rest. This beak, composed of three joints, contains four thin, straight, and sharp hairs. The thorax is dilated at the sides. The abdomen is very much developed, orbicular, composed of eight segments, very much depressed, and easily crushed by the fingers. The hemelytra are rudimentary. It has no membranous wings. The tarsi have three articulations, of which the last is provided with two strong hooks.
"These animals," says Moquin-Tandon, in his "Zoologie Médicale," "do not draw up the sanguineous fluid by suction, properly so-called, as leeches do. The organisation of their buccal apparatus does not allow of this. The hairs of the beak applied the one against the other exercise a sort of alternate motion, which draws the blood up into the œsophagus, very much in the same manner as water rises in a chain pump. This rising is assisted by the viscous nature of the fluid, and above all, by the globules it contains." The part of the skin which the Bug has pierced, producing a painful sensation, is easily recognised by a little reddish mark, presenting in its centre a dark spot. Generally a little blister rises on the point pierced, and sometimes, if the Bug-bites are numerous, these blisters become confluent, and resemble a sort of eruption. These disgusting insects lay, towards the month of May, oblong whitish eggs ([Fig. 71]), having a small aperture, through which the larva comes out. The larva differs from the insect in its perfect state, in its colour, which is pale or yellowish. This insect exists in nearly the whole of Europe, although it is rare or almost unknown in the northern parts. The towns of central Europe are the most infested by this parasite, but those of the north are not completely free from its presence. The Marquis de Custine assures us that at St. Petersburg he found them numerous. It is found also in Scotland; is very rare in the south of Europe; and seldom seen in Italy, where it is, however, replaced by other insects more dangerous or more annoying.
It has been said that the Bug was brought into Europe from America; but Aristotle, Pliny, and Dioscorides mention its existence. It is certain that it was unknown in England till the beginning of the sixteenth century. A celebrated traveller, a Spanish naturalist, Azara, has remarked that the Bug does not infest man in his savage state, but only when congregated together in a state of civilisation, and in houses, as in Europe. From this he concluded that the Bug was not created till long after man, when, after many centuries had elapsed since his appearance on the globe, men formed themselves into societies, into republics, or little states.
The bug is not a gluttonous insect, always bloodthirsty; on the contrary, its sobriety is remarkable. It is only after a prolonged fast that it bites animals; and Audouin has stated that it can live a year and even two years without food.
From time immemorial a number of different means have been employed for destroying these insects; but in spite of all, nothing is more difficult than to get rid of them from wood-work and paper-hangings, when they have once infested them. In general, strong odours cause their death. And so, to rid oneself of these disagreeable guests, it has been recommended to use tobacco smoke, essence of turpentine, the fumes of sulphur, &c. Mercurial ointment and corrosive sublimate are also excellent means for their destruction; and for the same purpose the merits of a plant belonging to the order Cruciferæ, Lepidium ruderale, have been much vaunted; and more recently still, the root of the Pyrethrum, a species of camomile, reduced to powder, and blown into the furniture or wood-work. This powder is known and employed at Paris under the name of "poudre insecticide."
There are two other kinds of bugs (Acanthia) which attack men. The one is the Acanthia ciliata, which has been found in the houses of Kazan, and which differs from the bed bug not only in its form, but also in its habits. It does not live in companies, in the narrow cracks of furniture, but moves about alone, at a slow pace, over walls or the counterpanes of beds. Its beak is very long, and its bite is very painful, and produces obstinate swellings.
The other species is the Acanthia rotundata, which is found in the Island of La Réunion, and attacks men in the same way as does the European bug. Two species of the same genus live as parasites on swallows and domestic pigeons. There is another species, which is peculiar to the bats of our climates.