228 Agricultural Experiment Station, Ithaca, K. Y. 



easily distinguished. The females are slightly larger and broader; 

 their abdomen is considerably larger, blunter, and somewhat keel- 

 shaped (Fig. 9, c) ; the caudal border of the segments and the edge of 



Fig. 3.— The adult insect; its natural size represented in small figure at the right. 



the keel are sometimes blackish in color. The smaller abdomen of the 

 male is more nearly cylindrical caudad and is provided with two black 

 curved hook-like claspers near the tip, which is black on the venter. 

 The four black stripes on the dorsum of the thorax are also usually 

 noticeable wider in the males. 



Its Classification. 



Many persons in speaking of insects in a popular way call them 

 " bugs." However, all insects are not bugs, but all bugs are insects 

 In other words, when the term bug is properly applied to an insect it 

 means that the insect belongs to a certain division, called the order 

 Hemiptera, of the whole great group of insects. Thus only those 

 insects which belong to the order of Hemiptera are true bugs. Famil- 

 iar examples of bugs are the Scale-insects, the well-known Plant-lice, 

 the Pear Psylla, the Bed-bug, the Chinch Bug, and the Squash Bug. 



The pest under discussion is one of the true bugs It is a member 

 of one of the largest families, the Capsklae, into which order Hemip- 

 tera is divided. The Chinch Bug belongs to a closely allied family. 

 There are several hundred members of the family Capsidae and most 

 of them live chiefly on the leaves of plants from which they derive 

 their nourishment. Professor Comstock has, therefore, in his " First 

 Lessons in the Study of Insects" (now in press) very aptly given to 

 the Capsidae the popular name " Leaf -bugs." 



Its scientific 7iame. — The name by which this bug is now recognized 

 by naturalists is PoecilocajMUS lineatus. A glance at the synouomy of 

 the insect as given on another page will show that it has had other 



