SUCKING INSECTS. 183 



kept in a warm room, these aphides will awaken 

 speedily, spin their cottony nests, and feed as they 

 are accnslomed to do in the genial season*." 



With numerous facts of a similar kind on record, it 

 was a sing-uhir oversight in Mr. Swainson, to state 

 that sucking insects " can do no injury to the agri- 

 culturist f." 



A numerous family of a different order of insects 

 is but too well known, both in gardens and houses, 

 under the general name of bugs {Cimicidce, Leach) ; 

 most, if not all the species, being distinguished by 

 an exceedingly disagreeable smell, particularly when 

 pressed or bruised. Their sucking instrument has 

 been so admirably dissected and delineated by M. Sa- 

 vigny, in his Theory of the Mouth of Six-legged 

 (Jicxapod) Insects |, that we cannot do better than 

 follow so excellent a guide. In the figure (6) is a 

 view of the under side of the head of the black-horned 

 bug (Cimex nigricornis, Fabr.), exhibiting the sucker 

 in its sheath, directed backwards, which is its natural 

 position during repose. The sheath is composed of 

 four pieces, which, according to Savigny's Theory, 

 represent an under lip much prolonged. The edges 

 bend downwards, and form a canal for receiving the 

 four bristles, which he supposes to correspond with 

 the two mandibles and the two lower jaws. In the 

 figure («) the sheathed upper lip, and the four bristles 

 placed together and drawn out of their sheath, are 

 presented from above ; and in the third figure (c) the 

 four bristles (representing the upper and lower pair 

 of jaws) are developed so as to exhibit them sepa- 

 rately. It is probable that the two middle ones act 

 as piercers, while the other two, being curved at the 



* Journal of a Naturalist, 341. 



i Loudon's Encycl. of Agricult. page 1113, 2d edition. 



\ Mem. Anira. sans Vertebres, i. 36. 



r2 



