40 CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OP HORTICULTURE. 



be a degraded family, since they have through their degraded habits 

 lost their wings, and to a great extent powers of locomotion, being 

 wholly dependent upon the bodies of their hosts, to which they are 

 attached all their lives. They have, however, become highly special- 

 ized for this style of life, and are well adapted for it. 



While on this subject we may state that the bird-lice are not true 

 lice, nor do they belong to the order now under consideration. With 

 the true lice, the mouth parts are made for suction — haustellate — and 

 they properly belong to the Hemiptera, the bird-lice and the book-lice 

 have biting mouth parts, and for these separate orders have been 

 erected, the biting bird-lice being classified as Mallophaga, and the book- 

 lice as Corrodentia. 



Suborder HETEROPTERA. (The True Bugs.) 



The word Heteroptera means having diverse or different wings, and 

 included in this suborder are the true bugs of the entomologist, for 

 while, as before stated, to the average person all insects are bugs, to 

 the entomologist the term means only members of this suborder. 



The common squash-bug may be taken as the type of this group- 

 When winged, their wings differ from the suborder Homoptera in the 

 composition and position of the wing covers and in the direction of the 

 head. The insects in this suborder have the head horizontal, on a 

 plane with the body, the beak arising from the front. The wing 

 covers lie flat on the back, and are composed of three separate pieces: 

 corium, clavus, and membrane. These parts are modified in different 

 species in a great variety of ways. 



The young of this suborder are known as nymphic, and after the third 

 molt show the rudiments of wings. The nymphse are sometimes quite 

 different in coloring to the mature insect. Some difficulty has been 

 experienced in arranging a perfect synopsis of this suborder, which has 

 been arranged in twenty -six families. They have been divided into twa 

 groups, the long-horned bugs and the short-horned bugs. About one 

 third of them live in the water, a large section near the water, and the 

 rest on land. They may therefore be classed as Aquatic, Amphibious, 

 and Terrestrial bugs. The following synopsis of families is arranged 

 by Comstock: 



THE SHORT-HORNED BUGS. Bugs with short antenna, which are nearly or quite 

 concealed beneath the head. 



Bugs that Live Within Water. 



The Water-boatmen. Family Corisid;e. 



The Back-swimmers. Family Notonectidie. 



The Water-Scorpions. Family Nepidae. 



The Giant Water-bugs. Family Belostomidte. 



The Creeping Water-bugs. Family Naucoridte. 

 Bugs that Live Near Water. 



The Toad-shaped Bugs. Family Galgulidte. 



