io4 



THE STUDY OF INSECTS 



Family Phymatid^ 



The Ambush-bugs 



The ambush-bugs are notable for the form of the front legs which are 

 modified into grasping organs. The antennae are also notable because 

 the terminal segment of each is more or less enlarged into a knob-like 

 form. 



The most common member of this family is Phymata erosa 

 (Fig. 1 68). It is a greenish insect, with a black band across 

 the broadly expanded abdomen. It conceals itself in flowers, 

 fig. i 68.— and captures the insects which come to sip nectar. It is es- 

 Phymata erosa. p ec j a iiy abundant among the flowers of golden-rod. It over- 

 powers and captures insects like cabbage butterflies, honey-bees and large 

 wasps. 



Family Tingid^; 



The Lace-bugs 



The Tingida? are doubtless the most easily recognized of all Hemip- 

 tera. The lace-like structure of the hemelytra, usually accompanied by 

 expansions of the prothorax of a similar structure, gives these insects a 

 characteristic appearance which 

 needs only to be once seen to be 

 recognized in the future (Fig. 169 

 and 170). They are generally very 

 small insects. But they occur in 

 great numbers on the leaves of 

 trees and shrubs, which they 

 puncture in order to suck their 

 nourishment from them. 'Their 

 eggs are fastened to leaves, and 

 covered by a brown, sticky sub- 

 stance ; they appear more like fungi 

 than like the eggs of other insects. 



Fig. i6q. — A tingid, Cory 

 /'mi ha iircuala. 



Fig. 170. — Eggs and 

 nymph of the tingid, C 

 arcuata. 



Family Pyrrhocorid^ 

 The Cotton-stainer Family 



The members of this family are rather stout and heavily formed 

 bugs, and are generally black or brown, marked with red. In this family 

 there are two or three large cells at the base of the membrane, and from 

 these arise branching veins (Fig. 171). 



The most important member of this family is the cotton-stainer, 

 Dysdercus suturellus, which is about § of an inch long (Fig. 172). 

 The head, front part of thorax, and underside of the abdomen are red 

 while the dark brown hemelytra are marked with light yellow lines. The 

 nymphs are red. The insect punctures the immature bolls and the seeds 

 within. The seeds exude a material which stains the lint an indelible 



