394 THE INFERTCORNIA. 



its flatj ovate, reddish-brown body, lias no doubt given 

 rise to some of the accounts of winged bed-bugs which 

 have been put forward from time to time. A com- 

 mon species on the nettle is the Heterogaster Urtic(B, 

 in which the membrane exhibits two distinct cells at 

 its base; it is of a brassy-black colour, with the 

 hemelytra grey. 



But perhaps the most abundant species of this 

 tribe are some very small, flat bugs, which may be 

 seen flying about in every direction during the sum- 

 mer, and which frequently settle upon our clothes as 

 we walk in the streets. They are distinguished from 

 the rest of the group by having the rostrum apparently 

 three- jointed, in consequence of the minute size of the 

 basal joint, and by the division of the corium of the 

 hemelytra into two parts by a transverse impressed line 

 or suture placed near the apex. These little Bugs, the 

 largest of which scarcely exceeds a sixth of an inch in 

 length, are found during the summer upon flowers and 

 the trunks of trees, and during the winter under bark 

 and lichen, and in the moss at the roots of trees. 

 The most abundant species is the Anthocoris nemorum, 

 a delicate-looking little insect, with a black body and 

 semitransparent whitish hemelytra, brown towards 

 the extremity of the corium ; the membrane is white, 

 with a large, somewhat triangular dusky spot on its 

 disc ; the antennae pale yellow, ^\ith the basal joint, 

 the extremities of the second and third, and the whole 

 of the fourth black ; and the legs pale yellow, with a 

 dark brown band close to the tip of the hinder thighs. 



Another of these insects, adorned with a splendid 

 livery of red and black, is the Pyrrhocoris apterus. 



