THE HARLEQUIN CABBAGE-BUG: ITS DESCHIHTION. 



265 



send for examination, by mail to-day, some specimens of a hug that 

 for the last year has ntterly destroyed the cabbage crop in this section, 

 and this year, during the months of August and September, has 

 blighted and ruined over a thousand heads of cabbage in my garden. 

 After the cabbages are all sucked dry, the bugs attacked my summer 

 turnips, and totally annihilated them. They then commenced to 

 suck the bunches of late grapes, and the shoots on some of my late 

 corn, gathering in great numbers near the young silk." 



Description. 



Tlie Imago. — The above insect is a true bug, of the order of Hemip- 

 tera and of the sub-order of Hcterofiera. It resembles in shape tlie 

 well-known squash-bug, and feeds in the same manner by means of a 

 beak, or proboscis, bent beneath its body when not in use. It measures 



^g)^ three-eighths of an inch in length, 

 by nearly one-fourtli in width. It 

 is conspicuously marked iij shining 

 blue-black, dull orange and white, 

 as follows: The black head has two 

 short lines upon it of yellowish- 

 white ; the thorax is orange, with 

 a ring of black on each side, cen- 

 tered with a triangular orange spot, 

 or with the black diminished, and 



Fig 77. — The Harlenuin Cabbaee-bufir, ,i • -.i • , , , 



Mcrgantiahistrionica: a and /;, the larva the rmg either interrupted, or 



and papa, enlarged; c, theegsjs, uatural size; broken iuto twO SpotS. The COria- 

 «, side view oi the eggs showing the bands ; . ^ . 



«, end view of same, showing the lid for the ceouS portions of the willg-COVerS 

 escape of the larva; f, the adult insect; </, / r, . • • .1 jr i t \ 



the same, with expanded wings. (Riiey.y (characterizing the Heteroptero), 



are orange, crossed obliquely by two 

 black bands, and their tips are black. The scutel (the large triangular 

 piece covering the central portion of the body), is black, with a pale 

 yellow spot at each anterior angle, a black terminal tip and a central 

 cross of orange. Beneath, the joints of the abdomen bear u[)on their 

 margin a row of triangular white spots, and intermediately there are 

 three rows of parti-colored spots in orange and white. The adult in- 

 sect is represented at/ in Fig. 77, and at g^ with wings expanded as 

 in flight. 



The Pupa. — The pupa resembles the perfect insect in marking iind 

 coloring, but may be at once distinguished by having wing-pads in- 

 stead of wings : it is shown at h. 



The Larva. — The larva? are smaller, less angular, are without the 

 large scutel and wing-pads, and are a pale green where the more ad- 

 vanced forms are orange. Their general appearance is shown at a. 

 3-i 



