golden-yellow scales, and then with rather long, erect black hairs which project between the scales. The elytra of the male are blackish-brown. In the male the upper part of the front part of the thorax or pronotum is bent down towards the head, whereas in the female it is straight. The thighs are long and black, and the tibiae reddish-yellow, often tipped with black, as shown in the illustration.

At Fig. a is given a profile view of the head, so as to show the very long second joint of the hair-clad antennae, and the way in which the long, four-jointed beak is bent under the breast. The rather peculiar tarsus is shown at 6, and the labrum at c. The word Orthocephalus is formed from two Grreek words, signifying straight-headed, and the Latin specific name hirtus, or hairy, is given to the insect in allusion to the long black hair with which its body is covered. The shape of the elytron, or wing-cover, of the male is shown at Fig. d, and that of the true or flying wing at Fig. e of the same illustration.

The family of the Acanthiidse is represented by the common Bed-Bug (^Accmth/in Icctuldno, or GiTncx iBctuldnus'^^ which is represented on Woodcut LXVII. Fig. 1. In this genus the abdomen is nearly circular, and both sexes are almost without wings, their position being only indicated by a pair of little scale-like projections. Some entomologists assert that specimens have been found possessing perfect wings, but there is no satisfactory proof of any such development among the numbers that are annually killed.

When and how this singularly unpleasant insect was introduced into this country is not known ; but there is no doubt that it is not indigenous, and that it was unknown some three hundred years ago. It is true that there are several allusions to the Bug in Shakespeare, as well as in older writers ; but in every case the word does not allude to the noxious insect, but is taken in its original sense, namely, something that can terrify or annoy, and originally signifies some terrible spectre that walks by night. Thus in Ps. xci. 5, the word which is now rendered as ‘ terror ’ by night, was in the older editions of the Bible translated as Bugge, the allusion being evidently to spectral apparitions. It is still used in this sense in the word Bug-bear. We can easily see how an insect, newly introduced

into England, and spreading with a rapidity to wliicli the customs of our ancestors gave every assistance, would he distinguished hy a name which signified a nightly terror.

Being very flat and short-legged, and always walking with the legs in nearly the same plane as the body, the Bug can creep into very narrow crevices, and hundreds can hide themselves where there seems scarcely to be room for half a dozen. In the chinks of old furniture, and especially behind the wooden panels of old walls, they pack themselves so closely

Acanthia lectularia. 2. Coranus subapterus. 3. Eediivius personatuf*. a. Acanthia lectularia, tore-leg. b. Do., Antenna. c. Do., head, showing position of rostrum. d. Do., rostrmn.

and in such numbers that they form thick layers of living insects, and the language of the carpenter in ‘ Punch ’ is hardly exaggerated when he said that if he were to take away a panel, they would get up on their hind legs, and bark like dogs.

The eggs of this insect are very small, and can be inserted

by the parent at the very bottom of the crevices in which she

has made her home. There are four broods in the year, and

each female lays, on an average, fifty eggs each time. When newly laid, the eggs are covered with a sort of varnish, which rapidly hardens when exposed to the air, and forms a cement by which the eggs are securely fixed to the object on which they are laid.

In some three weeks from the time that they are laid, the young Bugs are hatched. They are then so small as almost to be invisible, and, in fact, unless they have tasted blood, can hardly be seen except with a magnifying-glass. When, however, they have succeeded in attacking some human being, the extreme transparency of their skins causes the sucked blood to be seen through their tissues, and they look like tiny moving specks of scarlet. They attain their full growth in about three months.

As is the case with other blood-sucking insects, the Bug is rather capricious in its attacks. There are many persons whom it never touches, or at least, as I rather fancy, to whom it causes no annoyance if it does attack them ; while there are others— myself among the number— who seem to be the centre of attack of every blood-sucking insect in the neighbourhood, and who suffer little less than torture from their venomous beaks. In attaining its prey, the Bug often displays much ingenuity. If it cannot otherwise get at a person who is lying on a bed, it will ascend the wall, crawl along the ceiling, and then fall on the bed, to the great discomfiture of its inmate.

I have remarked that in most cases those who are most obnoxious to the attacks of the Bug are most sensitive to its odour, and vice versa. There were some rooms in Paris in which these abominable insects swarmed. They even came out in the daytime, and I have seen the little scarlet young perambulating the walls in the early morning. My olfactory nerves, however, were amply sufficient, without the sense of sight, to betray the presence of the insects, and yet the inmates of the room were absolutely insensible both in nostrils and skin to the presence of these abominable insects.

A still stronger case occurs to my memory. Some years ago at Oxford, I was visiting a working shoe-maker. The room was clean, and the walls neatly, though rather quaintly, deco-

rated with red wafers, like the spots on a toy-house. The odour of the room was, however, almost asphyxiating, and the air was so foul that some pure water which I had brought with me was covered with scum in a few minutes. On examining the walls a little more closely, I found that the imagined red wafers were nothing but Bugs, each of which had been smashed by a blow from the broad-headed shoemaker’s hammer. Not one of the family, however, was in the least aware that the atmosphere within the room was more offensive than that without it, and none of them suffered any discomfort from the insects with which their house swarmed.

It is probable that the Bug does not absolutely require human blood, which is but a luxury to it. In its original condition it is said to live upon the juices of various trees, and to be able to procure nourishment from them even v'hen the timber has been dried and made into furniture. Many entomologists believe that the first Bugs which were introduced into this country came over with the large cargoes of American timber that were used in rebuilding those parts of London which had been destroyed by the great fire of 1666. Some timbers, however, such as walnut, mahogany, oak, or cedar, are said not to afford them any nourishment.

The question of extirpating these insects is really an important one. Cleanliness and the increasing use of metal bedsteads have done much in lessening their niunbers, but, despite all precautions, no house and no room is really safe from them. A single female may be brought to the house in the laundress’ basket, find her way to some crevice, lay her eggs, and so found a large colony before their presence is fairly discovered. Various means of ridding the place of them have been tried, such as taking the furniture to pieces and painting all the joints with turpentine. Such means are effectual enough as far as the turpentine can reach, but no farther ; and when the insects have taken up their residence in chinks of the wall, they cannot be subjected to turpentine or any other liquid.

It is evident that, in such a case, the insects can only be touched by vapour, and the question arises what vapour to employ. That of sulpliur has been used with success, as lias that of one or two other suffocating substances. But in any of these cases, the vapour must be so thick that no human being

can breathe it and live, so that there is an element of danger, and the after effects of sulphur vapour are anything but agreeable. I once had a room which was suddenly and grievously afflicted with these insects, and managed to clear it entirely from them without doing any damage to the house or furniture, or running the least risk of injuring any human being. There is a very valuable insect-powder, sold by Mr. H. Easter, of Cloudesley Square, Islington, which has the property of killing all insects, while it is quite harmless with regard to vertebrate animals, so that it can be sprinkled over birds, cats, dogs, and other animals without the least danger. My pet cat was once greatly tormented with parasites. I put a large teaspoonful of the powder into a bag, introduced pussy into it, much against his will, tied up the mouth, and left the bag on the floor. Of course, the cat tumbled about inside the bag, and rolled about the floor so as to introduce the powder thoroughly into the fur. In about twenty minutes I let out the cat, and found that every flea that had tormented him lay either dead or dying in the bag.

Finding this process so effectual I bethought me of trying the vapour upon aphides, moth-eaten fur, &c. &c., and, as the vapoiu was quite as destructive as the powder itself, I determined on trying it on a large scale. So I made a number of brown-paper cybnders, just like squib-cases, and filled them with the insect-powder, taking care to ram it down hard. I then pasted paper over every crevice that could let the smoke out of the room, or the air into it, lighted the squibs at the open end, blowing them into a bright red glow, disposed them about the room, and then closed the door, pasting paper from the outside across the junction of the door with the doorway.

After an hour or so, I took from the keyhole the cotton-wool which I had placed in it, looked into the room, and found that it was thick with smoke-wreaths. The smoke began to settle down in some three or four hours, and when it had nearly subsided, I entered the room and opened the window. The sight was an astonishing one. In every direction lay dead or dying Bugs, from the full-grown veteran to the tiniest larva. In some places where the smoke had not been very thick, the insects were still on their feet, but so stupified that they could only just put one leg before another. I am almost afraid to

say how many were captured, but it is sufficient to mention that they were counted, not by individuals, but by measure.

About a month afterwards, the process was repeated, for the purpose of killing those which had escaped on the first occasion, and the young larvoe which might have been hatched since the fumigation. Scarcely any survivors were discovered, and ever afterwards the room was quite free from them. It appeared that they had been introduced in a bedstead which had been warranted free from all insects.

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