| Cimicidae Temporal range:
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|---|---|
| |
| Cimex lectularius | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hemiptera |
| Suborder: | Heteroptera |
| Superfamily: | Cimicoidea |
| Family: | Cimicidae Latreille, 1802 |
| Subfamilies and genera | |
|
Subfamily Afrociminae Subfamily Cimicinae Subfamily Cacodminae
Subfamily Haematosiphoninae
Subfamily Latrocimicinae
Subfamily Primicimicinae
| |
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.