192 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE OKANGE. 

 THE WHEEL-BUG. 



{Prionotns cristatus, Linn.) 

 [Fig. 93.] 



Fig. 93. — Prionotns cristatus. (After Glover.) 



This large bug is not uncommon in orange groves. Its body and legs 

 are covered with a coat of very fine, close down, giving it an ash-gray 

 color; the thorax rises in a semi circular ridge, which is provided with 

 short, projecting spines, regularly placed, like the teeth of a cog wheel ; 

 the head is small, but is armed with a powerful beak, which is capable 

 of giving a poisonous stab, more painful to man than the sting of a 

 hornet. 



Mr. Glover, in the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1875, gives an extended account of this insect, and shows tliat it is very 

 voracious in all its stages; the young prey upon Aphis and other small 

 or soft-bodied insects, and after paralyzing them with their deadly sting 

 suck and empty them of their juices. 



The eggs are urn-shaped, as shown in the figure, and are deposited in 

 large clusters, firmly cemented to each other, and placed in all sorts of 

 situations, but usually upon some firm suppoit, such as the trunk of a 

 tree or the sine of a building, or fence rail. 



The young wheel bugs are bright red with black markings. 



The Green Soldier bug {Raphigastcr hilaris Fitch), the two species 

 of Metapodius {M. femora f us ^ and .1/. terminalis), with the closely allied 

 species, Euthochtha galeator Fabr,, have already beeu noticed as partly 

 plaut-feediug, bat \Yitti rapacious habits also, 



