260 INSECTS AT HOME. 



may be seen in swarms upon flowers and various plants, espe- 

 cially infesting those of the greenhouse, where they become an 

 absolute pest, particularly if the gardener be careless about his 

 plants. They collect in great numbers on the underside of 

 the leaves, the chief part of the damage being done by the 

 larvae, which mark the leaves with little decayed patches. 

 Stone fruits of various kinds are also much damaged by them, 

 the little creatures making their way into the ripe fruit at the 

 base of the stalk, and then crawling in — much as do the ants — 

 between the stone and the soft substance of the fruit. 



There are many species of these insects, which popularly go 

 under the collective name of Thrips, but the distinctions are 

 too many and minute for any but a purely scientific work. 

 The exact position of the order is still a mooted point among 

 entomologists, as these insects resemble the Orthoptera and 

 Hemiptera in their transformations, while the structure of the 

 mouth is quite unlike that of either of these orders. Van der 

 Hoeven seems scarcely to think that the Thysanoptera con- 

 stitute a separate order, and considers them as an appendix to 

 the Orthoptera. 



