Bed Bug or possibly a Bat Bug?

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Thomas Ashcraft
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Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:56 am
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Bed Bug or possibly a Bat Bug?

Post by Thomas Ashcraft »

In the year 2006 my neighbors here in rural New Mexico asked me to identify a bug that they assumed was a Bed Bug. They gave me a dead one in bad shape, and I took some photos of it with my old Spencer Buffalo microscope. I researched a little on the internet and at the time I thought it might actually be a Bat Bug because of the length of the hairs at the pronotum area.

I got my identification info from this site:
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2105a.html

Now that Bed Bugs are in the news every day here in the United States I am wondering if I was correct in my identification? Does anyone know if this is a Bat Bug or a Bed Bug? Many thanks in advance for any information.
- Thomas

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NikonUser
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Location: southern New Brunswick, Canada

Post by NikonUser »

Another possibility is a Swallow Bug. These infest swallow nests and once the swallows leave the bugs are likely to enter houses; that is if there are swallow nests under the eaves of the house.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

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Thomas Ashcraft
Posts: 133
Joined: Mon Aug 07, 2006 5:56 am
Contact:

Post by Thomas Ashcraft »

Hi NU,

Yes, maybe it was a Swallow Bug. Hard to tell from a crunched specimen. The rural ranch had swallows, bats, and the people also traveled to cities so it might have been any one of the Bed Bug type species.

Thomas

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