BUGS. 



285 



FIG. 327. Corythuca arcuata. 



sides of the leaves, like all its congeners, lays its eggs next the midrib and veins, and 

 remains attached (here by its rostrum, drawing the sap, from midsummer until the f rusts 

 begin to be felt in autumn. It is of a white color, 

 with a black, shining body beneath the scale-like, 

 meshed covering, and has a band across the base and 

 another at tip of the wing-covers, a few traces on the 

 crests, sides, and base of the prothorax, as also before 

 the middle of the scutellum, either black or dark 

 brown. Many degrees of valuation occur in the width 

 and size of tli,e black markings, so that in some indi- 

 viduals these are reduced to mere vestiges. It meas- 

 ures at most about two-twelfths of an inch, but is often 

 much smaller. As far as at present known, it is pretty 

 generally distributed throughout the eastern side of 

 the United States, and occurs also in Lower Canada. 

 In Mexico and the West Indies it is replaced by 

 other closely related species. C. ciliata is almost \\rn- 

 form white, and abounds upon the sycamore ; while < '. jnrjlandis lives upon the 

 butternut, and C. gossypii infests the cotton-plant. Gargaphia is a closely-related 

 genus, having a wider prothorax and broadly-rounded wing-covers, destitute of the. 

 short spines which margin the thorax and costa of the preceding genus. One species 

 lives upon leaves of beans, and another sometimes abounds upon the black alder. 

 About forty genera, embracing hundreds of species, belong to this family, many of 

 which inhabit the United States, but which for want of space cannot be noticed at 

 the present time. 



We now reach the family CIMICID^E, composed of two prominent sub-families. 

 The first is Anthocorina, represented by chiefly minute, long-oval, narrow-headed 

 forms, of a black, shining, or dull brown color, marked with white. The thorax is 

 sub-conical in front, or flat and transverse, the antenna? are filiform in the genus An- 

 thocoris, which contains our largest black species, ornamented with reddish and 

 white, or they taper to a fine point in the dull brown ones, such as Lyctocoris and 

 Dolichomerus. 



That pest of housekeepers, the bed-bug, Cimex lectularius, is the representative 

 of the second sub-family, or Chnicina. The head is broader, and the 

 frontal narrower division is bluntly rounded, not comically produced, 

 as in the preceding division ; the antennae have the two basal joints 

 stout, the first being very short and much thicker than the second, 

 while the two end joints are very slender and more pubescent; and 

 the rostrum is slender, excepting the base and extends to the fore 

 coxa3. This species has been distributed over most parts of the 

 world, chiefly by the agency of man, and, as might be expected 

 under such circumstances, is subject to much variation in the relative size, propor- 

 tions, and forms of most parts of its body. Full-fed and gross specimens are often 

 quite coarsely punctured and hairy ; while their half-starved brethren have a much 

 thinner outside integument, and finer punctures, with less conspicuous pubescence. 

 Some specimens have the wing-pads hanging loose, as if ready to change into wing- 

 covers, but generally these are run together in one piece on the middle line. Thus 

 far no individuals of this insect have been met with fully winged. 



FIG. 32S. Cimex 

 lectularius. 



