INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE ORANGE. 337 



by puncturing them and sucking portions of their contents. 

 Notwithstanding its injurious habits, it has been by some 

 writers classed among beneficial insects as a destroyer of the 

 harlequin cabbage-bug. 



No. 247. The Cotton-stainer. 

 Dysdercus suturellus H. Schf. 



This insect, like that last described, belongs to the order of 

 true bugs (Hemiptera) ; it is commonly known as the red- 

 bug, or cotton-stainer, and is one of the worst pests with which 

 the cotton-planters of Florida and the West Indies have to 

 contend. It injures the cotton by piercing the stems and 

 bolls and sucking the sap ; but the principal injury to the 

 crop is occasioned by its staining the cotton in the opening 

 bolls with its excrement. It also attacks the fruit of the 

 orange, puncturing the rind, sucking the juice, and causing 

 the fruit to decay and fall to the ground. When full grown, 

 it is from six to seven tenths of an inch long, and appears as 

 shown in Fig. 397, the thorax triangular, 

 with its anterior part red, posterior por- 

 tion black, all margined with whitish yellow. 

 The scutellum is triangular, red, margined 

 with pale yellow; the wing-cases are flat, 

 with two distinct whitish lines crossing them, 

 which intersect each other near the centre; 

 they are also partly margined with a yel- 

 lowish line. The under side is bright red, with yellowish- 

 white markings on the edge of each segment. 



Each female produces about one hundred oval, amber- 

 colored eggs, which are attached in clusters to the under side 

 of the leaves. The young bugs are bright red, with black 

 legs and antennae. These bugs are usually found in immense 

 numbers, and where cotton has been planted between the rows 

 of orange-trees instances are recorded where a large propor- 

 tion of the oranges have been destroyed. The mature insects 



