THE INTEREST IN INSECTS 



31 



the wood under the bark, according to 

 their kind. 



Of the flat-bugs that are found in 

 this country, in the East, Aradus similis 

 is the most interesting in its choice of 

 abode. Where the white birches shine 

 ghostly in the leafless winter woodland, 

 there he abides — but not in the living 

 tree. He slumbers peacefully through 



"WHERE THE WHITE BIRCHES SHINE." 



the rain and snow and sleet snug and 

 warm under the loosened bark at the 

 base of the trunk, where dissolution has 

 begun to separate it from the wood. 

 There is, so to speak, not much head- 

 room, but the bug is as thin as paper and 

 it contrives to work its way in. There 

 you find in little colonies the grayish, 

 white-spotted young, and the black, glas- 

 sy-winged adults, torpid and motionless 

 with the cold, sometimes, in very severe 

 weather, covered with a white hoarfrost. 

 Hold them a moment in the warmth of 

 your hand, and first the white-ringed 

 antennae will slowly move, and then be- 

 fore you know what is up, the short 

 little legs carry the beasty away on a run. 

 If you touch him, he becomes motion- 

 less and "plays 'possum" for as long as 

 he imagines the danger lasts, and then, 

 away again. When spring quickens all 



living things, they come to life, and as 

 the days grow warmer, they seek their 

 summer abode, in and about the white 

 fungus Polyporus betulimis, that juts 

 out from the trunks of the dead and 

 decaying white birches. Sometimes they 

 wander into the fungus, itself, but their 

 regular dwelling place is at the base of 

 the fungus, where it springs from the 

 trees. Here it is that the young couples 

 start housekeeping, and when by the mid- 

 dle of summer they pass away at a ripe 

 and hoary old age, they leave behind 

 them a new generation that spend their 

 lives in the same way. And so on, from 

 year to year, since time was until time 

 shall be no more. 



There are many other kinds of true 

 bugs, and in the tropics they glow with 

 the most beautiful iridescent golden tints, 

 in all the glory of purple and royal blue. 

 Others again have the most peculiar 

 forms and habits. Certain little bugs 

 found in Spain in the Pyrenees, are 

 covered with spines ; others living on 

 the seashore and hiding in the sand are 

 of dull grays and very fuzzy. Some 

 kinds that burrow in the earth have 

 broadened front legs to help them dig, 

 just as the mole has. Others, the Halo- 

 bates, live on the surface of the ocean, 

 hundreds of miles from land. Some of 

 the tropical bugs have the hind legs 

 broad and leaf-like in rich colorings. 

 And finally, in the deeps of ponds and 

 streams dwell the fiercest and the most 

 active of the bugs, from the water boat- 

 men or back-swimmers, to the big elec- 

 tric light bugs, so-called, which we find 

 under the electric lights in city and vil- 

 lage, sometimes in great numbers. In 

 South America these last grow to a 

 length of five and even six inches and 

 attack and kill fish three and four times 

 their size. 



How can a true bug be told from any 

 other kind of insect? Because it is 

 peculiar in having a sort of jointed beak 

 bent under the head, and all other in- 

 sects have jaws or, like the butterflies, 

 have a kind of proboscis or trunk which 

 curls up into the head. Bugs have 

 rather shield-shaped bodies in many in- 

 stances, and the wings are folded flat on 

 the back in those which have the base 

 of the wing thick and opaque with the 

 end thinner and transparent. The forms 

 in which the wings are all clear and 

 membraneous carry them over the back 



