HEMIPTERA. 167 



HEMIPTERA. 



Bugs. — SauASH-Bua. Chinch-Bug. Plant-Bugs. — Harvest-Fi-ies. — Tree- 

 HoppERS. Leaf-Hoppers. Vine-IIopper. Bean-Hoppeu. — Thuips. — 

 Plant-Lice. American Bught. — Enemies of Plant-Lice. — Bakk-Lice. 



The word bug seems originally to have been used for any 

 frightful object, whether real or imaginary, whose appearance 

 was to be feared at night. It was applied in the same sense 

 as bugbear, and also as a term of contempt for something 

 disagreeable or hateful. In later times it became, with the 

 common people, a general name for insects, which, being little 

 known, were viewed with dislike or terror. At present, how- 

 ever, we can say, with L' Estrange, though "we have a horror 

 for uncouth monsters, upon experience all these bugs grow 

 familiar and easy to us." We would except, from this remark, 

 those domestic nocturnal species to which the name is now 

 applied by way of preeminence; the real, by an easy transi- 

 tion in the use of language, having assumed the name of the 

 imaginary objects of terror and disgust by night. 



Entomologists now use the word bug for various kinds of 

 insects, all, like the bed-bug, having the mouth provided with 

 a slender beak, which, when not in use, is bent under the body, 

 and lies upon the breast between the legs. This instrument 

 consists of a horny sheath, containing, in a groove along its 

 upper surface, three stiff bristles as sharp as needles. Bugs 

 have no jaws, but live by sucking the juices of animals and 

 plants, which they obtain by piercing them with their beaks. 

 Although the domestic kinds above-mentioned are without 

 wing-covers and wings, yet most bugs have both, and, with 

 the former, belong to an order called Hemiptera, literally half- 

 wings, on account of the peculiar construction of their wing- 

 covers, the hinder half of which is thin and filmy like the 

 wings, while the fore part is thick and opake. There are, 

 however, other insects provided with the same kind of beak, 



