ENEMIES OF APHIDES. 173 



otiier orders, and minute as many of these insects are the details 

 of their organisation are as much calculated to fill the observer 

 with surprise as those of the more bulky Blow-Fly, which Lowne 

 has described with such wonderful minuteness, or the Cockchafer, 

 the organs of which are modelled in wax by Auzoux, and have 

 attracted the learned and the curious on both sides of the Atlantic. 



The despised ' bug,' however, is not less worthy of the skill of 

 the dissector and microscopist, and presents so many features of 

 interest in its larval and nymphal stages, that a fully detailed 

 account would probably exceed the bulk of Lowne's classical 

 work, and would certainly try the patience of the ordinary reader. 



The characters of the Capsidse are well marked, the structure 

 of the antennae, the absence of ocelli, and the details of the 

 hemelytra serving to readily distinguish them. I have shown 

 upon PI. VII., at Figs, i, 2, and 3, the larva, nymph, and imago 

 of Capsus lanarius, and at Figs. 4 and 5 the coriaceous hemelytra 

 and the membranous posterior wings. On Plate VIII. the details 

 of the head and of the rostrum and some other parts are pre- 

 sented to the reader. 



The Larva. 



I have not been fortunate enough, in spite of much searching, 

 to secure any specimen of the larva in its earliest stages of exist- 

 ence. At a few days old it is somewhat linear in aspect (as com- 

 pared with the later forms). The abdomen, though flask-shaped, 

 is flattened laterally, and the obtuse prominences apparent on 

 either side of each segment, and in parallel lines upon the dorsal 

 surface of the abdomen, stand much more revealed than in the 

 stouter abdomen of the nymph, though, as in the latter, they are 

 each tufted with a group of very curious flattened bristles, each 

 one divided at its extremity into two or three points. These 

 bristles are shown on Plate VIII., at Fig. 13, and from their flatness 

 and the peculiar nature of their attachment to the epidermis are 

 the most obvious and striking feature of the species. They do 

 not appear to answer the purposes of ordinary hairs or bristles, for 

 unlike these their attachment to the skin is slight, and although 

 the solid-looking, chitinous ring or cup on the epidermis, which 

 forms their base, would seem to indicate an important organ, yet 



