Ecology of Man's Ancestors

Abstract

IN his recent book “The Causes of Evolution” (p. 10) Prof. J. B. S. Haldane makes the following incidental remark : “Thus that common enemy of man, the bed-bug belongs to a family whose members are mostly parasitic on bats. Dr. Buxton has, I think, suggested that it is a relic of the association of our palaeolithic ancestors with bats in caves.” It is, indeed, interesting to note that a number of other animals associated with man and his immediate environment belong to the ecological group of rock and cave communities. The members of the family Cimicidae to which the bed-bug belongs are predaceous (not parasitic in the strict sense of the word) not only on man and bats, but also on pigeons and house-martins, and the original habitat of these birds, as well as of swallows, is amongst cliffs and in caves. The predaceous bug Reduvius personatus, often preying on the bed-bug, is found only in houses and sheds, but other species of the genus occur amongst stones, in rock crevices, etc., in the Mediterranean region. The same largely applies to the house-cricket and to the myriapod, Scutigera. The typical cave bugs belonging to the subfamily Emesince are represented in the animal community grouped around man by several species of the genus Ploiaria (for example, P. domestica). The geckos are typical rock animals but they are just as commonly found on the walls of houses.