Report on the bed-bug.

  • Great Britain. Ministry of Health.
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the bed-bug. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    31/50 (page 27)
    Crace, F. W. (1920): Jbid., 8, 32. A detailed description of the reproductive system of Cimez. ——— (1923): Ibid., 11, 449. Both sexes of Cimex are fully mature soon after the final moult and the female may be impregnated before either sex has fed. The female will feed as readily before impregnation as after. The eggs do not begin to develop until they are fertilised and only a few eggs are laid until the female has had a feed of blood. The number of eggs depends upon the amount of food the female obtains and also upon the state of the male. The females impregnated by unfed males do not produce so many eggs as females impregnated by fully nourished males. Copulation is very frequent during normal life. A male can fertilise at least three females in 24 hours and it is probable that copulation occurs not less than once a day in nature. One impregnation does not enable the female to lay indefinitely. In two experiments in which the impregnating males had not been fed 48 and 43 normal eggs were laid ; in two experiments in which the males were fed the females laid 173 and 133 normal eggs. Towards the end of these experiments when the supply of spermatozoa was becoming exhausted, only malformed and sterile eggs were laid. The presence of more than one male makes no difference in the number of eggs laid. The spermatozoa are not retained intact by the female during periods of starvation at temperatures suitable for oviposition ; if the period is long enough no eggs are laid when feeding is resumed. If conditions are otherwise favourable to oviposition shortage of spermatozoa results in the production of deformed and sterile eggs while lack of food does not. ——— (1925): Ibid., 12, 451. The reproductive system of Cimex : impregnation. Cummines, B. F. (1917): Brit. Mus. (Nat. His.) Econ. Ser. 5 [Revised 1918 and 1932.] Life history, etc., of the Bed-bug. This pamphlet is so well known that further comment is unnecessary. Doren, 8. B. (1916): Rep. Nevada Agric. Expt. Sta., p. 38. Thirty-one Bed-bugs obtained from a lodging-house were placed in tubes in a box and kept under shelter in the open air from January 21st till April 10th. Only 11 survived, and these remained alive in a refrigerator at a temperature of between 40° and 50° F. till July Ist. Some very tiny bugs were kept in cold storage nearly 3 months without food. Eggs kept under the same conditions hatched promptly when the temperature was raised. Duncan, J.T. (1926): Parasitology, 18, 238. The bactericidal principle present in the alimentary tract of insects. FRICKHINGER, H.W. (1919): Z. angew. Ent., 6, 170. Draws attention to H. Hiilsen’s observation that the book scorpion, Chelifer cancroides, feeds on Bed-bugs. Grravutt, A.A. (1910): J. Econ. Biol., 5, 88. (1912): Ibid., 7, 163. ———_ (1914): Ibid., 9, 25. Gives the biology of the Bed-bug. His observations were made at. odd times and are not always quite accurate in the light of present knowledge. Hekept Bed-bugs in captivity for periods up to a year and watched their breeding habits. The greatest number of eggs laid by any one female was 190 and the least in the same series 86. He found that they would feed on the blood of mice, sparrows and guinea-pigs