64 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



plained that the blackberries he was eating tasted so much 

 like Bed-bugs, by telling him, "Never mind, sonny, keep on 

 eating them — our doctor, the blacksmith, says they are good 

 for fever." 



Considered as a whole, the insects of this order are not 

 as injurious as are Caterpillars and many grubs, but some 

 of them are quite destructive, as, for instance, the Plant- 

 lice, which absorb so much of the juices of vegetables as to 

 cause their decay. The Cochineal is the only insect of 

 this Order from which we derive great benefit, and that is 

 of vast importance as a coloring substance. I say the only 

 one — I ought, perhaps, to include the much-despised Bed- 

 bug, for which I always had a great aversion until I acci- 

 dentally learned its utility. Some few years ago I fell in 

 with an industrious mechanic, who had a wife and four 

 half-grown children, living in Avenue B, New York — all 

 healthy, industrious, and in thriving circumstances. He 

 told me that they all worked every day from three o'clock 

 in the morning until eleven o'clock at night ; and when I 

 expressed my astonishment at their being able to work so 

 hard with only four hours' sleep at night, he answered that 

 they could not do otherwise, for they could not go to bed 

 until from the want of sleep they were sufficiently benumb- 

 ed to be insensible to the stings of the Bed-bugs, who after 

 about four hours would overcome their insensibility and 

 oblige them to leave their beds. Here behold the utiHty 

 of Bed-bugs ! they make industrious and wealthy. Per- 

 haps the consumption of the midnight oil and the early ris- 

 ing of college students may also, in some measure, be attrib- 

 uted to the friendly hints of these interesting insects. 



Cicadce. 



The Cicada^ improperly called Locust, contains a number 

 of species. The Red-eyed Cicada {Cicada septemdecim), 

 which in all entomological works, particularly in the Unit- 



