Image of bed bugs

Description:

This scanning electron micrograph (SEM) revealed some of the ultrastructural morphology displayed on the dorsal exoskeletal surface of the head region of a bedbug, Cimex lectularius. A member of the phylum Arthropoda, this insect has three pairs of jointed legs, hence the name, Arthro = jointed, and poda = legs. What appeared to be hair was not hair at all, but sensory structures known as setae, and are composed of chitin, the same material as the rest of this organism’s exoskeleton. Chitin is a molecule made up of bound units of acetylglucosamine, joined in such a way as to allow for increased points at which hydrogen bonding can occur. In this way chitin provides increased strength, and durability as an exoskeletal foundation.

Bedbugs are not vectors in nature of any known human disease. Although some disease organisms have been recovered from bedbugs under laboratory conditions, none have been shown to be transmitted by bedbugs outside of the laboratory.
Created: 2009