Beneficial Insects 



(a) ASSASSIN-BUGS 



The members of this family are so pre-eminently predacious that 

 they are known as the assassin-bugs. Their mode of attack is truly that 

 of the assassin. Approaching their prey by stealth or lying in wait for it, 

 they pounce upon their victims and pierce them, oftentimes in the back, 

 with their beaks and proceed to drink up their life blood. 



One noted member of this family feeds upon bedbugs and is known 

 as the masked bedbug hunter. This insect infests houses where its prey is 



found. 



(b) AMBUSH-BUGS 



The bugs of this family are called ambush-bugs because of their 

 habit of lying concealed in flowers, especially those of thistle and golden- 

 rod, patiently waiting for some nectar loving insect to visit their ambush. 

 The unlucky visitor is grasped with the much enlarged fore legs of the 

 ambush-bug and impaled on its strong beak. 



The common species of this family are yellowish or greenish, marked 

 with dark bands and spots. The abdomen is broadened behind, con- 

 cave on top and very convex below. The forward pair of legs is very 

 much enlarged and armed with heavy claws with which the bug's prey 



is held. 



(c) STINK-BUGS 



(Figs 8 to 13, Plate IX, Page 27) 



The members of the stink-bug family are furnished with glands 

 which secrete a very ill-smelling fluid which escapes through two open- 

 ings on the under side of the body. 



While most of these bugs feed upon vegetables, some being noted 

 pests, several species are predacious. 



The pictured soldier-bug (Figs. 12 and 13, Plate IX, Page 27) is noted 

 as a destroyer of potato-beetles, and also feeds upon alkali-beetle larvae. 

 The eggs (Fig. 8, Plate IX, Page 27, natural size, and Fig. 9, Plate IX, 

 Page 27, enlarged) are placed on the leaves of potatoes and other plants 

 where the insects fed upon by the young are found. 



When first hatched the young are reddish, as shown in Figure 11, 

 Plate IX, Page 27. The half-grown nymphs appear as in Figure 10, 

 Plate IX, Page 27. The adults are of two colors, as shown in the figures. 



5. LACE-WINGED FLIES 



(Figs. 16, 17, 18 and 19, Plate IX, Page 27) 



The delicate, green, lace-winged fly or golden-eyes (Fig. 19, Plate IX, 

 Page 27), as it is frequently called, is a familiar object flitting about in 

 the cool of dense foliage, especially where aphids or other small, soft 

 bodied insects are numerous. 



The eggs (Fig. 16, Plate IX, Page 27) are always attached to the 

 surface of a leaf or other object by a hair-like stalk about one-half inch 

 long. One author* states that this is natures way of protecting the 

 unhatched eggs from the newly hatched larvae, which are so exceedingly 

 voracious that even their own unhatched brothers and sisters are not 

 safe when other food is not available. 



*Comstock, "Manual of Insects," page 181. 



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