554 HEMIPTERA. 



increased rapiditj". Soon this pulsation becomes so rapid that 

 several contractions may be counted in a second. However, 

 we must turn our attention elsewhere, for the whole digestive 

 tube is now in the most lively peristaltic movement, filling it- 

 self rapidl}' with blood, as is easily observed ; the long oesopha- 

 gus is particular!}^ agitating, throwing itself from one side to 

 another inside the neck, bending itself so violentlv as to re- 

 mind one of the coiling of a rope when being shipped on deck." 

 Schiodte states that the sucking organ or beak is a "'dark 

 brown protruding haustellum, provided with hooks at each ex- 

 tremity, out of which an excessively delicate membranaceous 

 tube, of varying length, is hanging. This pumping "ventri- 

 cle" (which is undoubtedly homologous with the pumping 

 stomach of most sucking insects, such as the Diptera, Lepidop- 

 tera and Hymenoptera) .Schiodte has discovered in "those 

 Coleopterous larvse which have powerful organs for biting, 

 placed at a distance round a ver}' minute 

 mouth-opening, such as the larvaj of Carabi, 

 Ilydrophili, and Ulster, as well as in the 

 larvae of Dj^tisci, which suck through the 

 mandibles." 



The same author also shows that the mouth 

 of Pediculus differs from that of Hemiptera 

 generally in the circumstance that the lal)iuni is capable of 

 being retracted into the upper part of the head, which there- 

 fore presents a little fold, which is extended when the labium 

 is protruded. He also shows that those parts which were, by 

 mistake, thought to be palpi and mandibles by Erichson, 

 Jurine and Landois, are simply lobes on the under side of a 

 chitinous band. 



In Pediculus the thorax is a little smaller than the elongated 

 abdomen, and all the tarsi are two-jointed. The genus Plitlii- 

 rins has a very small thorax, with the abdomen much wider 

 than the head, and the fore tarsi have Init a single joint. 

 Phthirius pubis Linn. (Fig. 5r)9), the Crab louse, is found on 

 the pubic region of man and also on the head. 



Mallophaga Nitzsch. The Bird-lice live on the hair of 

 Mammalia and feathers of birds. In this group there are dis- 



