152 . HEMIPTERA, 



watchers," &c. These wriggle about in the net much after 

 the fashion of water-beetles. 



Excepting the Pentatomklce (cut in five ways, or re- 

 sembling a shield), and a ^QVi- other genera, bugs are very 

 active in the hot sunshine, and require some adroitness in 

 capturing them. The Capsidce, for instance, no sooner feel 

 themselves beat or swept into your net, than they raise their 

 wino^ and are off ao;ain at once. 



The Saldulce also, found for the most part on the sandy 

 or gravelly edges of pools, are exceedingly difficult to lay 

 hold of. They are oval in shape, with very prominent eyes, 

 and leap out of sight on the least apprehension of danger. 



Like the moths and beetles, bugs, too, have their repre- 

 sentatives in ants' nests ; but in this country we know next 

 to nothing what these are. What a grand chance is here 

 afforded to those who dwell in the North, and visit such 

 places as Rannoch, where ants' nests are worth calling so ! 



I remember, when staying there, how surprised I was at 

 seeing such huge things piled up at the roots of almost every 

 fir tree, the trunks swarming with the creatures passing up 

 and down in long files, this one bearing a leaf, that a piece 

 of bark ; and then the curious crackling noise emitted from 

 the thousands on the surfaces of the nests, a heaving mass 

 working: with the o-reatest excitement : but I knew nothing 

 of bugs then, or I might have reaped a rich harvest. 



Another feature worth mentioning in the bugs is this, — 

 unlike moths or beetles, their forms during their trans- 

 formations retain all the characters of the perfect insects, 

 except the wings. 



Very delicate species, such as BerytuSy Neides, Ploiaria, 

 &c., — these are gnat-like creatures,— we put singly into pill- 

 boxes ; all the others we "bottle." A phial containing a 

 few bruised leaves, or a drop or two of benzine, with some 



