INSECTS. 



257 



ORDER VII. HEMIPTERA (Bugs). 



The Hemiptera are the true bugs. The term bug is fre- 

 quently loosely applied, but any true bug has the follow- 

 ing characteristics: Its mouth-parts are not fitted for 

 biting, but for piercing and sucking. They are prolonged 



Fia. 78. Head of seventeen-year locust to show the mouth-parts, etc. a, an- 

 tenn^e; e, compound eye; I, labium; md, mandible; mx, maxilla. 



into a beak, consisting of a fleshy grooved sheath (labium) 

 with four needle-like bristles (mandibles, maxillae) in the 

 groove. This organ is used for making holes in plants or 

 flesh, and also serves as a tube through which the bug sucks 

 up the juices found. The bugs have an incomplete meta- 

 morphosis, are hemimetabolous (p. 241), hatching from the 

 egg much in the adult condition, except that wings are 

 lacking. 



