HETEROPTERA. 323 



apical membrane having only one or two strong veins, 

 curved and parallel with tho tip of the wing, forming 

 a basal semicircular cell." 



Pretty as they are, the little Capsidse, like others of 

 their order, are first cousins to the abhorred Bug, and 

 the family likeness makes its appearance in the dis- 

 agreeable scent belonging to them, and which they leave 

 behind on fruit, upon the juice of which they have been 

 feeding. 



The Lygseidae are generally small and somewhat slender 

 insects, often prettily banded and spotted with black, red, 

 and white. Lygseus equestris (PL XIII., fig. 5), is one of 

 the larger and more conspicuous species ; the thorax and 

 horny part of the wings are red banded with black, and 

 the black membrane of the wings is beautifully spotted 

 with white. Some are remarkable for the form of the thighs 

 of the fore-legs, which are much thickened and curiously 

 toothed. Gastrodes abietis, an insect about one-third of 

 an inch long, is an example of this. The head and fore- 

 part of the thorax, the scutellum, and half the antennae 

 are black ; the basal joints of the antenna?, edge and 

 base of the thorax, and legs are yellow ; the wings are 

 yellowish, spotted with red. In this family is one genus, 

 Astemma (three species), in which the elytra neither 

 overlap, nor are half horny, half membranous, but are 

 thickened throughout. 



Lygffiid and the following family, Coreidae, may be 

 distinguished by the longitudinal veins in the membranous 

 part of the fore-wiogs. In Lygaeid these are seldom 

 more than five in number, while they are numerous in 

 Coreid. In Coreidae too, the last joint of the antennas 

 is thickened, but not in Lygasidaa. 



The Coreidffi, like the Lygaeidae, contain many 

 Y 2 



