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Bedbug

Cimex lectularius
Cimex lectularius
Did you know that… ?
  • …thanks to modern hygienic practices, bedbugs are rarely found in developed countries?
  • …bedbugs belong to the suborder Heteroptera?
  • …bedbugs have tiny wing stubs, but have completely lost the ability to fly?
  • …in European conditions, adult bedbugs feed by sucking blood about once per week, while nymphs once every two weeks?
  • …before laying eggs, the female must suck up enough blood to approximately double her body volume?
Cimex lectularius
General info
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hemiptera
Size: 5 mm
Food: blood
Habitat: bedrooms
Distribution: cosmopolitan
Relationship with humans: parasite
Biology

Bedbugs are unpleasant tenants in human bedrooms. Both adults and nymphs are parasites, living by sucking blood from warm-blooded hosts - mammals and birds. They acquire blood using their proboscis, which has the ability to puncture skin and draw out blood. A hungry individual has a flat abdomen, while a full one is rounded. To sate its appetite, this insect needs 4-7 mg of blood. Bedbugs are active at night; during the day they hide in cracks, usually in higher locations. They leave behind specks of waste with a characteristic odor. Bedbugs can move very quickly and can survive without food for a long time. Females lay 100-200 eggs, but before doing so, they must suck up an adequate amount of blood. Bedbugs are found on all continents except Antarctica.