Bugs, Cicadas, Aphids, and Scale-insects 209 



The flower-bug family, Capsidae, contains two hundred and fifty known 

 North American species, almost all of which, however, are small and incon- 

 spicuous. They mostly live in pastures, meadows, gardens, and along 

 roadsides, on the grasses, weeds, and herbaceous flowering plants of these 

 places, but some infest woody plants and a few species do much damage 

 to garden and orchard shrubs and trees. A few species are predaceous, 

 and Howard has seen one species sucking the eggs of the imported elm-leaf 

 beetle, a great pest of our elm-trees. The structural characteristic by which 

 they can most readily be distinguished from other bugs is the presence of 

 one or two closed cells and no longitudinal veins in the membrane (apical 

 half) of each fore wing (Fig. 268). When examined closely many of these 



FIG. 288. 



FIG. 290. 



FIG. 288. A flatbug, Aradus cinnamomeus. (After Lugger; enlarged about six times.) 

 FIG. 289. The tarnished plant-bug, Lygus pratensis. (Five times natural size.) 

 FiG. 290. The four-lined leaf-bug, Pascilocapsus lineatus ; at right, eggs deposited in 



plant-stem. (Figure of insect original, enlarged three and a half times; of eggs, 



after Slingerland, and much enlarged.) 



little bugs will be seen to be elaborately patterned and beautifully colored, 

 and their body outline is trim and graceful. They are active and quick 

 to escape from the collecting-net. (The best way to collect them is by sweep- 

 ing rankly growing herbage with a short-handled stout net.) Among the 

 most abundant and wide-spread Capsids of economic importance is the 

 tarnished plant-bug, Lygus pratensis (Fig. 289), which attacks many cul- 

 tivated plants, as the sugar-beet, strawberry, pear-, plum-, apple-, quince-, 

 and other fruit-trees. It is about ^ inch long, and ranges from dull dark 

 brown to yellowish or greenish brown. A yellowish-white V-shaped mark 

 on the scutellum is its most characteristic marking. It hibernates in the 

 adult stage, under fallen leaves or in any rubbish, and comes out in the spring 

 to pierce and suck sap from tender buds and leaves. The four-lined leaf- 

 bug, Pcecilocapsus hneatus (Fig. 290), a small bright-yellow bug with head 



