100 OUTLINES OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



As two of these include but few species of general interest, we shall 

 here consider but three : 



I. True Bugs (Sub-Order 11 e t E b, o P t E r a). 

 II. Harvest-flies, Leaf-hoppers, etc. (Sub-Order H o m o p t e r a). 

 III. Lice (Sub-Order Par A SIT a). 



CHAPTER XXV. 

 Order hemipteka. Sub-Order Heteroptera. 



PRINCIPAL FAMILIES OF TRUE BUGS. 



[Fig. 41.] 



Rapacious Solclier-bug (Reduvius raptatorius, Say.)— afcer Riley. 



The insects in this Sub- Order always have the head horizontal — 

 namely, on a plane with the body, with the beak arising from the front. 

 The form of the head is somewhat flattened and triangular, attached to 

 the thorax by a broad base or by a very short neck. The thorax from 

 above does not present any striking peculiarities, except in the varying 

 size of the scutellum; on the under side, however, of a large majority 

 of the species are two small openings, connected with an internal scent 

 gland that emit a vile and persistent odor — one of the chief character- 

 istics of these insects, familiar to the farmer in the smell of the chinch- 

 bug and squashbug, and to the housekeeper in that of the bedbug. 

 The wing- covers show considerable variety in coloring and in the 

 relative size of the opaque and transparent portions. The hind wings 

 are veined somewhat like those of beetles, and afford no characters 

 used in classification. The eggs of many bugs are conspicuous for 

 their beauty, making amends, in some measure, for the deficiencies 

 of most of the perfect insects in this respect. Some of them can only 

 be compared to strings or clusters of tiny beads of the purest gold ; 

 others are bronzed or reflect prismatic colors ; others, again, are re- 

 markable for their graceful shapes or for their elaborate ornamentation 

 in what appears like filigree work. Instead of larvse, the immature 



