HEMI^PTERA. 159 



place where they generally remain durmg the daytime, appar- 

 ently to escape observation ; but at night they leave the ground, 

 get beneath the leaves, and lay their eggs in little patches, fasten- 

 ing them with a gummy substance to the under-sides of the leaves. 

 The eggs are round, and flattened on two sides, and are soon 

 hatched. The young bugs are proportionally shorter and more 

 rounded than the perfect insects, are of a pale ash-color, and have 

 quite large antennae, the joints of which are somewhat flattened. 

 As they grow older and increase in size, after moulting their skins 

 a few times, they become more oval in form, and the under-side 

 of their bodies gradually acquires a dull ochre-yellow color. 

 They live together at first in little swarms or families beneath the 

 leaves upon which they were hatched, and which, in consequence 

 of the numerous punctures of the insects, and the quantity of sap 

 imbibed by them, soon wither, and eventually become brown, 

 dry, and wrinkled ; when the insects leave them for fresh leaves, 

 which they exhaust in the same way. As the eggs are not all 

 laid at one time, so the bugs are hatched in successive broods, 

 and consequently will be found in various stages of growth 

 through the summer. They, however, attain their full size, pass 

 through their last transformation, and appear in their perfect state, 

 or furnished with wing-covers and wings, during the months of 

 September and October. In this last state the squash-bug meas- 

 ures six tenths of an inch in length. It is of a rusty black color 

 above, and of a dirty ochre-yellow color beneath, and the sharp 

 lateral edges of the abdomen, which project beyond the closed 

 wing-covers, are spotted with ochre-yellow. The thin overlap- 

 ping portion of the wing-covers is black ; the wings are transpar- 

 ent, but are dusky at their tips ; and the upper side of the abdo- 

 men, upon which the wings rest when not in use, is of a deep 

 black color, and velvety appearance. The ground-color of this 

 insect is really ochre-yellow, and the rusty black hue of the head, 

 thorax, thick part of the wing-covers, and legs, is occasioned by 

 numerous black punctures, that, on the head, are arranged in two 

 broad black longitudinal lines, between which, as well as on the 

 margin of the thorax, the yellow is distinctly to be seen. On the 

 back-part of the head of this bug, and rather behind the eyes, are 

 two little glassy elevated spots, which are called eyelets, and 



