12 HETEROPTERA OF EASTERN NORTH AMERICA. 



one of the American authorities on Hemiptera; Nathan Banks, 

 Curator of Insects in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 Cambridge, Mass. ; J. R. de la Torre Bueno, of White Plains, 

 N. Y., an authority on aquatic Heteroptera ; Dr. Wm. L. Mc- 

 Afee, Curator of Hemiptera in the U. S. National Museum ; 

 Drs. Carl J. Drake and H. H. Knight, of the Department of 

 Entomology, Iowa State College, specialists respectively in 

 Tingididae and Miridae ; Dr. S. B. Fracker, State Entomologist, 

 Madison, Wis. ; Harry B. Weiss, widely known Entomologist 

 of Trenton, N. J.; Dr. H. B. Hungerford, State Ento- 

 mologist and student of aquatic Heteroptera, Lawrence, Kan. ; 

 Dr. A. J. Mutchler and C. E. Olsen, Curators of Insects 

 in the American Museum of Natural History, New York City ; 

 Prof. C. R. Crosby, Entomologist, Cornell University, Ithaca, 

 N. Y.; Prof. R. F. Hussey, Washington Square College, New 

 York City ; Prof. T. R. Frison, Curator of Insects, State Nat- 

 ural History Survey, Urbana, 111. ; Prof. C. E. Mickel, Curator 

 of Insects, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn., and C. 

 A. Frost, Entomologist, Framingham, Mass. 



To one and all of those mentioned and to numerous others 

 in a minor degree my thanks are due, and are herewith grate- 

 fully given for the favors shown. 



Relation of the Heteroptera to Other Animals. 



If we compare the body of a true bug or other insect with 

 that of any vertebrate animal, as a fish, bird or squirrel, we 

 find at once great and important differences. The vertebrate 

 is an animal with an inner bony skeleton, two pairs of jointed 

 limbs or appendages, and breathes by means of lungs or gills, 

 according as it dwells in air or water. The bug is an animal 

 which has no inner skeleton or bones whatever, but only a 

 hard crust on the surface which surrounds the muscles and 

 vital organs. This crust is composed of separate rings, placed 

 end to end. 



Animals whose bodies are thus composed of rings are called 

 Articulata. They are in turn divided into two great groups, the 

 Vermes and the Arthropoda. The Vermes (worms) have all the 

 rings composing the body very nearly alike, not hardened into 

 an outer crust or exoskeleton, and without paired limbs which 

 are jointed. The Arthropods have a part of the rings bearing 

 paired jointed appendages, and have the cuticle or outer sur- 

 face consisting largely of a peculiar substance called "chitin," 



