Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T13:25:04.083Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Studies in Tropisms of the Bed Bug Cimex lectularius L.1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Ezekiel Rivnay
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

1. Heat is an important factor in stimulating bed bugs to obtain food. Light and atmospheric humidity do not influence the reactions to heat to any great extent, but the state of nutrition and moulting do interfere with them.

2. The bug detects heat very slowly. At a room temperature of 23° C., from a distance of 4 cm., about 1½ min. were required before a bug reacted to the heat of the hand. At a lower temperature a longer period was required.

3. At ordinary room temperature a differential temperature of about 2° C. was necessary to cause a reaction to heat.

4. Bed bugs, although attracted to heat, will be repelled when the temperature is too high. Bugs were repelled by objects at 43° C. at a distance of about 3 cm.

5. Bed bugs have a sense of smell, but only react when very close to the odoriferous substance.

6. The odours of blood, muscle, subcutaneous tissue and clean, washed skin seemed to have no influence upon the bug; the odour of bile repels them; while liver at first attracted and then repelled them.

7. The odour of perspiration, depending upon its state of decomposition, sometimes repels and at others attracts bed bugs. Of the substances tested the odours of sebum and cerumen had the greatest attracting power.

8. The bed bug apparently discriminates between foods by taste.

9. Negative reactions to water counterbalance positive reactions to heat and odour.

10. The tendency to be in contact with an object, rather than the negative reaction to light, underlies the gregarious habit of the bed bugs as well as their search for places of retreat.

Type
Research Article
Information
Parasitology , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , March 1932 , pp. 121 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1932

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bohn, M. G. (1906 a). Sur la Phototropisme de l'Acanthia lectularia L. C.R. Soc. Biol. 60, 520.Google Scholar
Bohn, M. G. (1906 b). Sur l'adaption des réactions phototropiques. C.R. Soc. Biol. 584.Google Scholar
Frickhinger, H. W. (1916). Über das Geruchsvermogen der Kleiderlaus (Pediculus corporis de Geer). Zeitschr. angew. Ent. 3, 263.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Girault, (1907). A bibliography of the bed bug, G. lectularius. Zool. Ann. 11.Google Scholar
Girault, (1908). Notes on feeding habits of C. lectularius L. Psyche, 14, 85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hase, K. (1917). Die Bettwanze C. lectularius L. Ihr Leben und ihre Bekämpfung. Monogr. Zeitschr. angew. Ent. 1.Google Scholar
Howell, W. H. (1930). A Text-book of Physiology (11th ed.). W. B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Howlett, E. M. (1910). The biting of mosquitoes. Parasitology, 3, 479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howlett, E. M. (1917). Notes on head and body-lice and upon temperature reactions of lice and mosquitoes. Parasitology, 10, 186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemper, H. (1929 a). Beobachtungen uber den Stech-und Saugakt der Bettwanze und seine Wirkung auf die menschliche Haut. Zeitschr. f. Desinfekt. u. Gsndhtsw. 21, 61.Google Scholar
Kemper, H. (1929 b). Untersuchungen uber die Sinnesorgane und die Sinnesphysiologie der Bett wanze. Zeitschr. f. Desinfekt. u. Gsndhtsw. 21, 285.Google Scholar
McIndoo, N. E. (1916). The sense organs on the mouthparts of the honey bee. Smithson. Misc. Coll. 65 (14), 1.Google Scholar
Marchand, W. (1918). First account of a thermotropism in Anopheles punctipennis with bionomic observations. Psyche, 25.Google Scholar
Marchand, W. (1920). Thermotropism in insects. Ent. News, 31, 159.Google Scholar
Minnich, D. E. (1924). The olfactory sense of the cabbage butterfly, Pieris rapae L. J. Exp. Zool. 39, 339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nuttall, G. H. F. (1918). Biology of Phthirus pubis L. Parasitology, 11, 383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patton, W. S. and Craog, P. W. (1913). Textbook of medical entomology. London, Madras and Calcutta; Christian Literature Society for India.Google Scholar
Rivnay, E. (1930 a). Technique in artificial feeding of the bed bug, Cimex lectvlarius L. Parasitology, 16, 246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivnay, E. (1930). Host selection and cannibalism in the bed bug, Cimex lectularius L. Ann. Ent. Soc. Amer. 23, 758.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiss, H. B. (1913). Some tropic reactions of Megilla maculata D. G. and notes on the hydrotropism of certain mosquitoes. Canad. Ent. 45, 302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar