The Cimicidae are a family of small parasitic bugs that feed exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals. They are called cimicids or, loosely, bed bugs, though the latter term properly refers to the most well-known member of the family, Cimex lectularius, the common bed bug and its tropical relation Cimex hemipterus.[2] The family contains over 100 species. Cimicids appeared in the fossil record in the Cretaceous period. When bats evolved in the Eocene, Cimicids switched hosts and now feed mainly on bats or birds. Members of the group have colonised humans on three occasions.
Cimicids usually feed on their host's blood every three to seven days, crawling away from the host and hiding while they digest the blood, which may take several days. This means that they specialise in vertebrate hosts that return regularly to particular sites to nest, roost or sleep. Birds and bats suit these specific requirements, as do humans now that they live in dwellings, and these are the main hosts used by the bugs. Most cimicids are able to go for long periods without feeding, over a year in some instances.
Cimicids are typically small, oval, flattened, wingless insects. They are stimulated to appear from their hiding places by cues such as a slight rise in the temperature of their surroundings. Among the family's distinctive characteristics are traumatic insemination, in which the male fertilises the eggs by piercing the female's abdominal wall with his intromittent organ. They also have distinctive paired structures called mycetomes inside their bodies, in which they harbour bacterial symbionts: these may help them to obtain nutrients they cannot get from blood. Although the insects may acquire viruses and other pathogens while feeding, these do not normally replicate inside the insect, and the infections are not transmitted to new hosts.
^"Oeciacus hirundinis (Lamarck, 1816)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. 1996. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
^Ibrahim, O; Syed, UM; Tomecki, KJ (March 2017). "Bedbugs: Helping your patient through an infestation". Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine. 84 (3): 207–211. doi:10.3949/ccjm.84a.15024. PMID 28322676.
The Cimicidae are a family of small parasitic bugs that feed exclusively on the blood of warm-blooded animals. They are called cimicids or, loosely, bed...
Cimex is a genus of insects in the family Cimicidae. Cimex species are ectoparasites that typically feed on the blood of birds and mammals. Two species...
known as the tropical bed bug, is a species of bed bugs within the family Cimicidae that primarily resides in tropical climates. However, it has been reported...
Bed bugs, or Cimicidae, are small parasitic insects. The term usually refers to species that prefer to feed on human blood. Early detection and treatment...
bats – their hosts. The name has been applied to members of the family Cimicidae (e.g. Cimex lectularius, Afrocimex constrictus) and also to members of...
Cimex lectularius is a species of Cimicidae. Its primary hosts are humans, and it is one of the world's major "nuisance pests". Although bed bugs can...
the bat bug or western bat bug, is a species of bed bug in the family Cimicidae. It is found in North America. "Cimex pilosellus Report". Integrated Taxonomic...
PMID 14667353. Carayon, J. (1966). "Paragenital system". Monograph of Cimicidae (Hemiptera, Heteroptera). College Park, MD: Entomological Society of America...
Klaus; Siva-Jothy, Michael T. (January 2007). "Biology of the Bed Bugs (Cimicidae)" (PDF). Annual Review of Entomology. 52: 351–374. doi:10.1146/annurev...
to be confused with cimicid bat bugs, which are members of the family Cimicidae. A significant relationship appears to occur between the family groups...
anatomy and in application. For example, some insects, most notoriously the Cimicidae and some Strepsiptera, practise traumatic insemination, in which the intromittent...
knockdown resistance mutations in the bed bug,Cimex lectularius(Hemiptera: Cimicidae), populations in the United States". Archives of Insect Biochemistry and...
species of blood-sucking obligate ectoparasitic insect from the family Cimicidae, commonly called Mexican chicken bug, chicken bug or poultry bug. After...
swallow bug or cliff swallow bug, is a species of bed bug in the family Cimicidae. It is found in North America. The bug is a blood-feeding ectoparasite...
knockdown resistance mutations in the bed bug, Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), populations in the United States". Archives of Insect Biochemistry and...
Cimex antennatus is a species of Cimicidae (bed bugs) endemic to North America. Its primary hosts are bats. "Cimex antennatus Usinger and Ueshima, 1965"...
(Heteroptera: Cimicidae). International Journal for Parasitology, Vol 37, pp. 937-942, July 2007 R. L. Usinger, Monograph of the Cimicidae (Hemiptera-Heteroptera)...
(1966) Traumatic insemination and the paragenital system. In Monograph of Cimicidae (Hemiptera—Heteroptera) (ed. R. L. Usinger), pp. 81–166. College Park...
coloradensis, the Colorado bed bug, is a species of bed bug in the family Cimicidae. It is found in Central America and North America. "Hesperocimex coloradensis...
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