THE COMMON SQUASH-BUG. 195 



applied to this insect because its punctures cause the leaves 

 of the squash to become wrinkled. Mr. Say, not being aware 

 that this insect had already been three times named and de- 

 scribed, re-described it under the name of Coreus ordinatus. 

 Of these four names, however, that of tristis, being the first, 

 is the only one which it can retain. Coreus, its generical 

 name, was altered by Fabricius from Com, a word used by 

 the Greeks for some kind of bug. 



About the last of October squash-bugs desert the plants 

 upon which they have lived during the summer, and conceal 

 themselves in crevices of walls and fences, and other places 

 of security, where they pass the winter in a torpid state. 

 On the return of warm weather, they issue from their winter 

 quarters, and when the vines of the squash have put forth a 

 few rough leaves, the bugs meet beneath their shelter, pair, 

 and immediately afterwards begin to lay their eggs. This 

 usually happens about the last of June or beginning of July, 

 at which time, by carefully examining the vines, we shall find 

 the insects on the ground or on the stems of the vines, close 

 to the ground, from which they are hardly to be distinguished 

 on account of their dusky color. This is the place where 

 they generally remain during the daytime, apparently to es- 

 cape observation ; but at night they leave the ground, get 

 beneath the leaves, and lay their eggs in little patches, fasten- 

 ing them with a gummy substance to the under sides of the 

 leaves. The egers are round, and flattened on two sides, and 



OO 7 7 



are soon hatched. The young bugs are proportionally shorter 

 and more rounded than the perfect insects, are of a pale ash- 

 color, and have quite large antennae, the joints of which are 

 somewhat flattened. As they grow older and increase in size, 

 after moulting their skins a few times, they become more oval 

 in form, and the under side of their bodies gradually acquires 

 a dull ochre-yellow color. They live together at first in little 

 swarms or families beneath the leaves upon which they were 

 hatched, and which, in consequence of the numerous punc- 

 tures of the insects, and the quantity of sap imbibed by them, 



