THE STATE ENTOMOLOGIST. 113 



their smaller size and by a much smaller number being usually col- 

 lected together in a single group. As these eggs are often laid in the 

 same situation as those of the potato-feeding insect, care must be ta- 

 ken by persons who undertake to destroy the latter, not to confound 

 those of their best friends with those of their bitterest enemies. 



The Spined Soldier-bug. — In the larva state the Colorado Potato- 

 beetle is extensively depredated on, both in Illinois, Missouri and 

 [Fig. 54.] i ow&5 b y t he Spined Soldier-bug C Fi s- 55.] 



(Armaspinosa, Dallas), which is of 

 an ochre-yellow color and is repre- 

 sented with one pair of wings 

 closed and the other pair extend- 

 ed, in the annexed Figure 54. — 

 a & ]o Thrusting forwards his long and 



stout beak, he sticks it into his victim, and in a short time pumps out 

 all the juices of its body and throws away the empty skin. He be- 

 longs to a rather extensive group {Scutellera family) of the true bugs 

 (Heteroptera), distinguishable from all others by the very large scutel, 

 which in this genus is triangular, and covers nearly half his back. 

 Most of the genera belonging to this group are plant-feeders, but 

 there is a sub-group (Spissirostres) to which our cannibal friend be- 

 longs, characterized by the robustness of their beaks, and all of these, 

 seem to be cannibals. To illustrate to the eye the difference between 

 the beaks of the cannibal sub-group and the plant feeding sub-groups 

 of this family, Figure 54 a gives a magnified view of the beak of our 

 insect seen from below, and Figure 54 c a similarly magnified view of 

 that of a plant-feeder belonging to the same family {Euschistus 

 punctipes,S&y), which is so nearly of the same size, shape and color 

 as our cannibal friend, that at first sight many persons would mistake 

 one for the other. The Spined Soldier-bug, however, may be at once 

 distinguished from all allied bugs, whether plant feeders or cannibals, 

 by the opaque brown streak at the transparent and glassy tip of its 

 wing cases. 



It has sometimes been reported that the common Squash-bug 

 (Coreus tristis, DeGeer) preyed upon the Colorado Potato-beetle ; but 

 there can be little doubt but that the Spined Soidier-bug has in these 

 instances been mistaken for it. The colors of the two are somewhat 

 similar but in the eyes of an entomologist the Squash-bug looks as 

 different from the Spined Soldier bug as a cow does from a horse !': 

 The figure (55, a) of the former which is given above, opposite to 

 that of the latter, will enable any one to recognize the difference 

 while its magnified beak (Fig. 55, b ) indicates by itsslenderness that 

 it is a plant-feeder. 



The Spined Soldier-bug by no means confines himself to Potato- 

 beetle larva?, but attacks a great number of other insects. 



8 R SK 



