WEALTH OF INSECT LIFE 



185 



FIG. 151. Giant water-bug (Bena- 

 cus griseus) natural size. 



blood of its victim. This insect is harmless, but would 

 readily use its beak in self-defense. 



The Homoptera includes 

 such forms as the cicada or 

 harvest-fly (sometimes erro- 

 neously called locust), the 

 buffalo tree-hopper, aphids or 

 plant-lice, and scale insects. 

 Of all the insects in this or- 

 der, possibly the plant-lice 

 and scale insects are the most 

 unique in their development. 

 The plant-lice, in addition 

 to a very peculiar mode 

 of development, have with- 

 in their family certain spe- 

 cies which secrete a kind of honey much appreciated 

 by certain ants; and as these ants have now come to 



rely upon this as a 

 means of subsistence, 

 they have in many 

 cases adopted, as it 

 were, the plant-lice, 

 and care for them by 

 moving them about 

 to the tenderest parts 

 of the plants from 

 which the aphids 

 draw their nourish- 

 ment. And in turn 

 the aphids, from 



FIG. 152. Cicada and cast-off nymphal cov- 1 , , 



Wins-natural size. From a photograph. >ng attention by tllC 



