CHAPTER VIII 



HEMIPTERA OR BUGS 



Order IX. Hemiptera. 



Mouth consisting of a proboscis or mobile beak (usually conceal l 

 />// being bent under the body\ appearing as a tr answer sly - 

 jointed rod or grooved sheath, in which are enclosed long 

 slender setae (like horse-hairs). Wings (nearly always) four ; 

 the anterior frequently more horny than the posterior pair, 

 and folding flat, on the back, their apical portions usually 

 more membranous than the base (Heteroptera) ; or the four 

 wings may cover the abdomen in a roof -like manner, ami 

 those of the anterior pair may not have tlie basal and apical 

 parts of different consistences (Homoptera) ; sometimes all 

 four of the wings are tra HXJHI rent. Tlie young resembles the 

 adult in general form ; the wings are developed outside tlie, 

 body, by growth, at the moults, of the sides of the hinder por- 

 tions of the meso- and meta-notum ; tlie metanotal prolonga- 

 tions being more or less concealed, by tlie mesonotal. 



THE Hemiptera or Bugs are perhaps more widely known as 

 Khynchota. In deciding whether an Insect belongs to this 

 Order the student will do well to examine in the first place 

 the Leak, treating the wings as suhordiuate in importance, their 

 condition Leing much more variaLle than that of the Leak. The 

 ahove definition includes no reference to the degraded Anoplura 

 or Lice. These are separately dealt with on p. 599 ; they are 

 absolutely wingless, and have an unjointed proboscis not placed 

 beneath the body, the greater part of it being usually withdrawn 

 inside the body of the Insect. 



The Hemiptera are without exception sucking Insects, and 



