io2 THE STUDY OF INSECTS 



for they are nearly always complete with clavus, corium, cuneus and 

 membrane. The family contains several well-known economic forms. 



The four-lined leaf-bug, Pcecilocapsus linedtus, is a bright, 

 yellow bug about § of an inch long, with four longitudinal 

 black lines along its back (Fig. 162). It attacks various 

 plants but is most injurious to currants, gooseberries, deutzia, 

 dahlia, and weigelia. Its eggs are laid in groups of 6 to 8 in 

 the stems of the food plants. There is one generation each 

 fig. 162. — Poecii- year. 

 ocapsus hmatus. /pj^ Garnished plant bug, Lygus pratensis, is a greenish to 



dull brown bug about -5- of an inch long with a V-shaped yellowish mark on 

 the scutellum. It has been recorded on about fifty different plants and is 

 often seriously injurious to asters, dahlias, and celery and to apple and 

 peach trees in the nursery row. No satisfactory method of control is 

 yet known. 



The apple redbug, Lygidea mendax, is another injurious species of this 

 family. The nymphs are bright red in color but the adults are lighter 

 and not so conspicuous. Both the nymphs and adults puncture the 

 young apples with their beaks, thereby causing the fruit to become knotty, 

 deformed and misshapen. The bugs can be controlled by spraying the 

 trees after the petals have fallen with nicotine-sulphate at the rate of 

 f of a pint to 100 gallons of water. 



Family Anthocorid^e 



The Flower-bugs 



The flower-bugs are small insects living on flowers, often on trees 

 and sometimes under bark or rubbish. They are predacious and happily 

 some of them prey upon injurious species of insects. The most common 

 one is the insidious flower-bug, Triphleps insidiosus, which is black and 

 only about ^ of an inch in length. It is common on flowers as well as 

 in other situations. It preys on Phylloxera on the leaves of grapes and 

 sometimes on the chinch-bug. 



Family CimicidjB 



The Bedbug Family 



The members of this family are parasitic bugs, which are either wing- 

 less or possess only vestigial hemelytra. In these insects the ocelli are 

 absent, the antennas are four-jointed, the beak is three-jointed, and the 

 tarsi are three-jointed. Only four species belonging to this family have 

 been found in America north of Mexico. These are the bat bedbug, 

 Clmex pilosellns , which is parasitic on the bat, the species found in the 

 nests of swallows, CEciacus vicarius, the species which infests poultry in 

 the Southwest, Hamatoslphon inodorous, and the common 

 bedbug, Clmex lectuldrius, which sometimes attacks poultry 

 as well as man. The bedbug is a well-known pest over the 

 greater part of the world. It is reddish brown in color, and 

 measures when full-grown from one-sixth to one-fifth inch 

 in length. The body is ovate in outline and very flat (Fig. 

 1 63). It is wingless, or has very short vestigial hemelytra. 



