Bugs, Cicadas, Aphids, and Scale-insects 215 



histnomca (Fig. 296), black with red or orange or yellow strips and spots, 

 which has gradually spread from its native home in Central America to 

 all except the northern states of our country. It feeds on cabbages, radishes, 

 turnips, and other garden vegetables, and often does great damage in market- 

 gardens. In California it has to be fought vigorously in the large market- 



FIG. 296. 



FIG. 297. 



FIG. 298. 



FIG. 296. The harlequin cabbage -bug, Murgantia histrionica. (Twice natural size.) 

 FIG. 297. The spined tree-bug, Podisus spinosus. (After Lugger; natural length, 



| inch.) 

 FIG. 298. A stink-bug, Pentatoma juniperina. (One and one-half times natural size.) 



and seed-gardens of the Santa Clara Valley. The adults hibernate, and in 

 the spring each female lays about twelve eggs in two parallel rows on the 

 under surface of the young leaves. The young bugs, which are pale green, 

 hatch in three days, and in two or three weeks are full grown. There can 

 thus be several generations in a season. 



Among the predaceous or blood-sucking stink-bugs the species of the 

 genus Podisus are especially common and effective. They destroy many 

 injurious insects. Podisus spinosus (Fig. 297), the most familiar species, 

 may be recognized by the prominent spine-like processes projecting from 

 the posterior lateral angles of the prothorax. The large gray tree-bugs 

 of the genus Brachymena with roughened spiny back and grayish body- 

 color may be found resting on the bark of trees, with whose color and rough- 

 ness they harmonize so thoroughly as to be nearly indistinguishable. They 

 feed indifferently on either plant-sap or the blood of other insects. 



Representatives of the three other families of shield-backed or stink- 

 bugs will be rarely found by general collectors. The flea-like negro-bug, 

 Corimelcena pulicaria (family Corimelaenidae), is a tiny, very malodorous, 

 polished black species often abundant on blackberries and raspberries, 

 with which it often goes to market and even farther! The burrower-bugs 



