A numerous family of a large order of insects is but too well known,
both in gardens and houses, under the general name of Bugs (_Cimicidæ_)
most, if not all, of the species being distinguished by an exceedingly
disagreeable smell, particularly when pressed or bruised.
The sucking instrument of these insects has been so admirably dissected
and delineated by M. Savigny, in his “Theory of the Mouth of Six-legged
(_hexapod_) Insects,”[5] that we cannot do better than follow so
excellent a guide.
[5] “Mém. Anim. sans Vertébrat.” i. 36.
The sucker is contained in a sheath, and this sheath is composed
of four pieces, which, according to Savigny’s theory, represent an
under-lip much prolonged. The edges bend downwards, and form a canal
receiving the four bristles, which he supposes to correspond with the
two mandibles and the two lower jaws. It is probable that the two
middle of these bristles act as piercers, while the other two, being
curved at the extremity (though not at all times naturally so), assist
in the process of suction.
The plant-bugs are all furnished with wings and membranous wing-cases,
many of them being of considerable size, and decked in showy colours.
These differ in all those points from their congener, the bed-bug
(_Cimex lectularius_), which is small, without wings, and of a dull
uniform brown. The name is of Welsh origin, being derived from the same
root as _bug_-bear, and hence the passage in the Psalms, “thou shalt
not be afraid for _the terror_ by night,”[6] is rendered in Matthew’s
Bible, “thou shalt not nede to be afraide of any _bugs_ by night.”
[6] Ps. xci. 5.
In earlier times this insect was looked upon with no little fear,
no doubt because it was not so abundant as at present. “In the year
1503,” says Mouffet, “Dr. Penny was called in great haste to a little
village called Mortlake, near the Thames, to visit two noblemen who
were much frightened by the appearance of bug-bites, and were in fear
of I know not what contagion; but when the matter was known, and the
insects caught, he laughed them out of all fear.”[7] This fact, of
course, disproves the statement of Southall, that bugs were not known
in England before 1670.
[7] “Theatr. Insect.” 270.
Linnæus was of opinion, however, that the bug was not originally a
native of Europe, but had been imported from America. Be this as
it may, it seems to thrive but too well in our climate, though it
multiplies less in Britain than in the warmer regions of the Continent,
where it is also said to grow to a larger size, and to bite more
keenly. This insect, it is said, is never seen in Ireland.[8]
[8] J. R.
“Commerce,” says a learned entomologist, “with many good things, has
also introduced amongst us many great evils, of which noxious insects
form no small part; and one of her worst presents was, doubtless,
the disgusting animals called bugs. They seem, indeed,” he adds, “to
have been productive of greater alarm at first than mischief,--at
least, if we may judge from the change of name which took place upon
their becoming common. Their original English name was _Chinche_, or
_Wall-louse_; and the term _bug_, which is a Celtic word, signifying a
ghost or goblin, was applied to them after Ray’s time, most probably
because they were considered as ‘terrors by night.’ Hence our English
word _bug-bear_. The word in this sense often occurs in Shakspeare,
_Winter’s Tale_, act iii. sc. 2, 3; _Henry VI._ act v. sc. 2; _Hamlet_,
act v. sc. 2. See Douce’s _Illustrations of Shakspeare_, i. 329.”
Even in our own island these obtrusive insects often banish sleep.
“The night,” says Goldsmith, in his _Animated Nature_, “is usually
the season when the wretched have rest from their labour; but this
seems the only season when the bug issues from its retreats to make
its depredations. By day it lurks, like a robber, in the most secret
parts of the bed, takes the advantage of every chink and cranny to
make a secure lodgment, and contrives its habitation with so much art
that it is no easy matter to discover its retreat. It seems to avoid
the light with great cunning, and even if candles be kept burning,
this formidable insect will not issue from its hiding-place. But when
darkness promises security, it then issues from every corner of the
bed, drops from the tester, crawls from behind the arras, and travels
with great assiduity to the unhappy patient, who vainly wishes for
rest. It is generally vain to destroy one only, as there are hundreds
more to revenge their companion’s fate; so that the person who thus is
subject to be bitten (some individuals are exempt), remains the whole
night like a sentinel upon duty, rather watching the approach of fresh
invaders than inviting the pleasing approaches of sleep.”[9]
[9] Goldsmith’s “Animat. Nature,” iv. 198.
Mouffet assures us, that against these enemies of our rest in the
night our merciful God hath furnished us with remedies, which we may
fetch out of old and new writers, either to drive them away or kill
them.[10] The following is given as the best poison for bugs, by
Mr. Brande, of the Royal Institution:--Reduce an ounce of corrosive
sublimate (_perchloride of mercury_) and one ounce of white arsenic to
a fine powder; mix with it one ounce of muriate of ammonia in powder,
two ounces each of oil of turpentine and yellow wax, and eight ounces
of olive oil; put all these into a pipkin, placed in a pan of boiling
water, and when the wax is melted, stir the whole, till cold, in a
mortar.[11] A strong solution of corrosive sublimate, indeed, applied
as a wash, is a most efficacious bug-poison.
[10] “Theatr. Insect.”
[11] “Materia Medica,” Index.
Though most people dislike this insect, others have been known to
regard it with protecting care. One gentleman would never suffer the
bugs to be disturbed in his house, or his bedsteads removed, till, in
the end, they swarmed to an incredible degree, crawling up even the
walls of his drawing-room; and after his death millions were found in
his bed and chamber furniture.[12]
[12] Nicholson’s “Journal,” xvii. 40.
In the Banian hospital, at Surat, the overseers are said frequently to
hire beggars from the streets, at a stipulated sum, to pass the night
among bugs and other vermin, on the express condition of suffering them
to enjoy their feast without molestation.[13]
[13] Forbes, “Oriental Mem.” i.
The bed-bug is not the only one of its congeners which preys upon man.
St. Pierre mentions a bug found in the Mauritius, the bite of which
is more venomous than the sting of a scorpion, being succeeded by a
swelling as big as the egg of a pigeon, which continues for four or
five days.[14] Ray tells us that his friend Willoughby had suffered
severe temporary pain, in the same way, from a water-bug. (_Notonecta
glauca_, LINN.)[15]
[14] “Voyage to the Isle of France.”
[15] “Hist. Insect.” 58.
The winged insects of the order to which the bed-bug belongs often
inflict very painful wounds, and it is even stated, upon good
authority, that an insect of the order, commonly known in the West
Indies by the name of the _wheel-bug_, can communicate an electric
shock to the person whose flesh it touches. The late Major-General
Davies, R.A. (well known as a most accurate observer of nature and an
indefatigable collector of her treasures, as well as a most admirable
painter of them), having taken up this animal and placed it upon his
hand, assures us that it gave him, with its legs, a considerable shock,
as if from an electric jar, which he felt as high as his shoulders; and
then dropping the creature, he observed six marks upon his hand where
the six feet had stood.
Bugs are very voracious, and seem to bite most furiously in the autumn,
as if determined to feast themselves before they retire to their winter
quarters.
There is another pernicious bed insect--the flea (_Pulex irritans_,
LINN.), which, being without wings, some of our readers may suppose to
be nearly allied to the bed-bug, though it does not belong even to the
same order, but to a new one (_Aphaniptera_, KIRBY), established on the
principle that the wings are obsolescent or inconspicuous.
Fleas, it may be worth remarking, are not all of one species; those
which infest animals and birds differing in many particulars from the
common bed-flea (_Pulex irritans_). As many as twelve distinct sorts
of fleas have been found in Britain alone.[16] The most annoying
species, however, is, fortunately, not indigenous, being a native
of the tropical latitudes, and variously named in the West Indies,
chigoe, jigger, nigua, tungua, and pique (_Pulex penetrans_, LINN.).
According to Stedman, “this is a kind of small sand-flea, which gets
in between the skin and the flesh without being felt, and generally
under the nails of the toes, where, while it feeds, it keeps growing
till it becomes of the size of a pea, causing no further pain than a
disagreeable itching. In process of time its operation appears in the
form of a small bladder, in which are deposited thousands of eggs, or
nits, and which, if it breaks, produce so many young chigoes, which
in course of time create running ulcers, often of very dangerous
consequence to the patient. So much so, indeed, that I knew a soldier,
the soles of whose feet were obliged to be cut away before he could
recover; and some men have lost their limbs by amputation, nay, even
their lives, by having neglected, in time, to root out these abominable
vermin.” Walton mentions that a Capuchin friar, in order to study
the history of the chigoe, permitted a colony of them to establish
themselves in his feet: but before he could accomplish his object his
feet mortified and had to be amputated.[17] No wonder that Cardan calls
the insect “a very shrewd plague.”[18]
[16] “Insect Transformations,” p. 393.
[17] Walton’s “Hispaniola.”
[18] “Subtilia,” lib. ix.
Several extraordinary feats of strength have been recorded of fleas
by various authors,[19] and we shall here give our own testimony to
a similar fact. At the fair of Charlton, in Kent, 1830, we saw a man
exhibit three fleas harnessed to a carriage in the form of an omnibus,
at least fifty times their own bulk, which they pulled along with great
ease; another pair drew a chariot. The exhibitor showed the whole first
through a magnifying glass, and then to the naked eye, so that we were
satisfied there was no deception. From the fleas being of large size
they were evidently all females.[20]
[19] “Insect Transformations,” p. 180.
[20] Introduction, i. 102.--J. R.
It is rarely, however, that we meet with fleas in the way of amusement,
unless we are of the singular humour of the old lady mentioned by Kirby
and Spence, who had a liking to them; “because,” said she, “I think
they are the prettiest little merry things in the world; I never saw a
dull flea in all my life.”
When Ray and Willoughby were travelling, they found “at Venice and
Augsburg fleas for sale, and at a small price too, decorated with
steel or silver collars round their necks. When fleas are kept in a
box amongst wool or cloth, in a warm place, and fed once a-day, they
will live a long time. When these insects begin to suck they erect
themselves almost perpendicularly, thrusting their sucker, which
originates in the middle of the forehead, into the skin. The itching
is not felt immediately, but a little afterwards. As soon as they
are full of blood, they begin to void a portion of it; and thus, if
permitted, they will continue for many hours sucking and voiding. After
the first itching no uneasiness is subsequently felt. Willoughby had a
flea that lived for three months, sucking in this manner the blood of
his hand; it was at length killed by the cold of winter.”[21]
[21] J. R.
According to Mouffet’s account of the sucker of the flea, “the point of
his nib is somewhat hard, that he may make it enter the better; and it
must necessarily be hollow, that he may suck out the blood and carry
it in.”[22] Modern authors, particularly Straus and Kirby, show that
Rösel was mistaken in supposing this sucker to consist of two pieces,
as it is really made up of seven. First, there is a pair of triangular
instruments, somewhat resembling the beak of a bird, inserted on each
side of the mouth, under the parts which are generally regarded as the
antennæ. Next, a pair of long sharp piercers (_scalpella_, KIRBY),
which emerge from the head below the preceding instruments; whilst a
pair of feelers (_palpi_), consisting of four joints, is attached to
these near their base. In fine, there is a long, slender tongue, like a
bristle, in the middle of these several pieces.
[22] “Theatre of Insects,” p. 1102.
Mouffet says, “the lesser, leaner, and younger the fleas are, the
sharper they bite,--the fat ones being more inclined to tickle and
play. They molest men that are sleeping,” he adds, “and trouble wounded
and sick persons, from whom they escape by skipping; for as soon as
they find they are arraigned to die, and feel the finger coming, on
a sudden they are gone, and leap here and there, and so escape the
danger; but so soon as day breaks they forsake the bed. They then creep
into the rough blankets, or hide themselves in rushes and dust, lying
in ambush for pigeons, hens, and other birds; also for men and dogs,
moles and mice, and vex such as pass by. Our hunters report that foxes
are full of them, and they tell a pretty story how they get quit of
them. The fox, say they, gathers some handfuls of wool from thorns and
briers, and wrapping it up, holds it fast in his mouth, then he goes by
degrees into a cold river, and dips himself down by little and little;
when he finds that all the fleas are crept so high as his head for fear
of drowning, and ultimately for shelter crept into the wool, he barks
and spits out the wool, full of fleas, and thus very froliquely being
delivered from their molestations, he swims to land.”[23]
[23] “Theatre of Insects,” p. 1102.
This is a little more doubtful even than the story told of Christina,
queen of Sweden, who is reported to have fired at the fleas that
troubled her with a piece of artillery, still exhibited in the Royal
Arsenal at Stockholm.[24] Nor are fleas confined to the old continent,
for Lewis and Clarke found them exceedingly harassing on the banks
of the Missouri, where it is said the native Indians are sometimes
compelled to shift their quarters, to escape their annoyance. They
are not acquainted, it would therefore seem, with the device of the
shepherds in Hungary, who grease their clothes with hog’s-lard to deter
the fleas;[25] nor with the old English preventive:
[24] Linnæus, “Lachesis Lapan.” ii. 32, note.
[25] “Travels.”
“While wormwood hath seed, get a handful or twaine,
To save against March, to make fleas refrain.
Where chamber is swept, and wormwood is strown,
Ne’er flea for his life dare abide to be known.”[26]
[26] Tusser, “Points of Goode Husbandry.”
Linnæus was in error in stating that the domestic cat (_Felis
maniculatus_, TEEMMINCK) is not infested with fleas; for on kittens in
particular they abound as numerously as upon dogs.[27]
[27] J. R.