Adults are oval and somewhat flattened. Wings are absent, but they have small wingpads. The body is reddish brown to dark brown depending on whether or not it has taken a blood meal. Nymphs are similar in shape to the adults.
Eggs are yellowish white, with a distinct cap at one end. Females deposit eggs in batches of 10 to 50; they can lay about 350 eggs, but the range is 200 to 500. Hatching is in 6 to 17 days. Development to adult is through five nymphal instars, and takes about 14 days.
Development is not completed at temperatures below 55°F. Adult males can live for about 176 days and females about 277 days without feeding. There are three or four generations per year.
Food (blood) is required between each molt and before egg development. Between molts, nymphs feed about every 6 days. Feeding is nocturnal and usually peaks soon after sunset and before dawn, but bed bugs will feed during the day.
Habits. In cool weather, the adults and nymphs may remain active in the harborage for several weeks.
Carbon dioxide and warmth are detected and used to locate a host. These bugs respond to temperature gradients only two degrees above normal. Adults produce an aggregation pheromone and an alarm pheromone. Bed bugs prefer harborages with rough surfaces, such as bed frames and mattresses and along baseboards close to the bed.
Tropical Bed Bug (Cimex /aemipterur) is distributed primarily in the southern hemisphere, but is known to occur in southern U.S. It is rarely associated with bed bug infestations in commercial and residential buildings. This species can be distinguished from the common bed bug (Cimex lectularis) by the sides of the pronotum. In the tropical bed bug, the sides of the pronotum are not expanded, but in the common bed bug, they are large and spread out. The setae on the pronotum are straight and sparse.