190 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



twigs of trees; they are elou gate, irregularly oval, about an inch in 

 length, and contain forty or fifty eggs. The eggs (Fig. 91) occupy flat- 

 tened cells placed in two ranks, alternating with each other; the cluster 

 of cells has a braided or woven appearance, but consists simply of a con- 

 tinuous ribbon of mucus folded in close flutings, and having an egg 

 deposited in the bight or angle of each fold. The eggs are deposited 

 simultaneously with the deposition of this ribbon by the 

 mother insect, and the whole mass is at first soft and 

 flexible, but rapidly hardens by exposure to the air. 



MANTIS MISSOURIENSIS "? 



In this species the body, though over two inches long, 

 is but little thicker than a darning needle ; the legs are 

 very long and so slender that they seem hardly compe- 

 tent to sustain the weight of even so meager a body. 

 The extreme attenuation of all its parts, and the light 

 brown color of the insect, afford it protection from en- 

 emies, and enable it to advance unnoticed upon its prey. 

 Its ghost-like form is difficult to detect upon plants, and 

 it has the appearance of a straw caught in spiders' 

 webs, an illusion which the insect with apparent design 

 strengthens by frequently giving to its body a swaying 

 motion as if vibrated by air currents. 



This species is very common, and is frequently seen 

 upon the Orange as well as upon other plants. It has 

 a spring and fall brood. The egg-masses are brick-red 

 in color, about half an inch long, and flattened upon the 

 sides. They are usually deposited between the folds of 

 a dry leaf or in crevices of the bark. The structure is 

 tbe same as in the preceding species, but the cells are 

 more distinct and regularly placed. The food of this Mantis consists 

 chiefly of small flies, and neither this nor the preceding species are of 

 much importance to the cultivator of plants, since they do not at all dis- 

 criminate between his friends and foes, and do not seek out or destroy 

 the more insidious enemies which lurk in hiding places, or those which 

 protect themselves with a covering or scale. 



i'lG. 91. —Eggs of 

 Mantis car' Una. 

 (After Riley.) 



SOLDIEE-BUGS. 



Among the true bugs (Hemiptcra) are numerous predatory species, of 

 which not a few frequent the orange trees. It is not easy to distin- 

 guish the predatory from the i)lant-sucking kinds, and, indeed, in some 

 instances, the same bug has both habits. The most noteworthy in- 

 stance of this is in the case of liaiMgastcr hilaris^ already noticed in 

 Chapter IX. This species, on occasion a very destructive pest of the 

 plant, is at other times a useful insect, killing and sucking the juices of 



