3^54 



THE JOINTED ANIMALS 



HOTTENTOT BUG. 



(Natural size.) 



operculum, or lid, and disposed in patches resembling honeycomb. The larvae molt 

 several times in the course of their growth, and thus gradually effect a change in their 

 form and coloration. They feed on the juices of plants, or, in some cases, of animals, 



and attain their full size toward the end of summer. 

 The European species are rather limited in number; 

 but many forms are found in other parts of the 

 world. The Hottentot bug (Eurygaster maurus) 

 is the name given to a species with a very large 

 scutellum, found throughout nearly all Europe. 

 It is cf a yellow, dark brown, or black color, 

 with two clear spots on each side of the base of 

 the scutellum. Some rather pretty bugs of the 

 !** S enus Scutellera, belonging to the same subfamily, 

 and characterized by a similar large scutellum, are 

 found in Australia and the Eastern Archipelago. 

 They are of a short, broad, and convex form, and 



have a very fine metallic-blue coloration, often spotted with bright yellow. The 

 forest bugs (Pentatoma} have strongly projecting angles to the prothorax, and 

 have a long triangular scutellum. The species figured (P. rujipes) is common 

 throughout Europe, on birch and other trees, and renders service by destroying- 

 certain caterpillars. In the accompanying illustration three other species of this 

 family Acanthosoma 

 dentatum, which is com- 

 mon on willows; Eury- 

 dema oleraceum, a bluish- 

 green or metallic-green 

 species, with red or 

 white markings, which 

 in some places is injur- 

 ious to plants of the cab- 

 bage tribe, but also lives 

 on other plants, and has 

 often been seen to prey 

 upon insects; and an- 

 other common species 

 met with near the out- 

 skirts of woods and in 

 fields and meadows. 



The family Coreidce 

 includes a number of 

 land bugs, which vary 

 a good deal in form, 

 but which possess in common the following characteristics, antennae four jointed, 

 set rather high up on the head; two ocelli generally present; scutellum short and 

 triangular; elytral membrane strongly and thickly veined. These bugs mostly 



SHIELD BUGS. 



r. Pentatoma rujipes; 2. Acanthosoma dentatum; 3. Eurydema oleraceum; 

 4. Aelia acuminata (natnral size). 



