19K PROTECTION AGAINST INSECTS. 



always longer than the head, 4 to 5-jointed. Body flat. Fore- 

 wings horny at the base and membranous at the extremities. 

 All the legs generally similar. Tarsi 2 to 3-jointed. Abdomen 

 consisting of 7 to 8 segments. 



Noticeable for their disagreeable odour. 



The species which live in forests are useful by destroying 

 larvae and plant-lice, but a few species are injurious, sucking 

 young shoots, or the bast of older trees. The images come 

 out late in the summer, and pass the winter among dead leaves 

 or under bark. Pairing takes place in the following spring and 

 the eggs are laid on leaves, shoots, and in cracks in the bark. 



1. Pentatomidae. 



Imagos somewhat long, with 2 ocelli. Antennae long, filiform 

 or club-shaped, and generally 5-jointed. Scutellum large, and 

 reaching at least to the middle of the abdomen. Tarsi 

 generally 3-jointed, with two little lappets (pulvilli) between 

 the claws. 



Species Pentatoma rufipes, L., common in pine-forests. 



Pyrrhocoris apterus, L., often collects by hundreds at the 

 base of large lime and other trees. 



2. Reduviidae. 



Imacjos large, and longer than those of the preceding family, 

 with projecting head and long beak. Ocelli generally present. 

 Antennae long, filiform, thin, 4-jointed. Scutellum small. 

 Forelegs somewhat thickened, and adapted for seizing prey. 

 Tarsi short, 3-jointed, pulvilli absent. 



All the species are predatory and able to inflict a poisonous 

 wound with the beak. The most important as regards 

 forests is : 



Gerris ragalimdus, L., which lives in the leaf-galls, pro- 

 duced by certain aphides on elms. 



