INSECTS 



a more or less long and pointed beak. The latter is carried on the 

 under side of the fore part of the body and in some species reaches as 

 far as the base of the hind legs. The order is divided by systematists 

 into two main sections : the Heteroptera, in which the front of the head 

 is quite free from the base of the forelegs, and the Homoptera, in which 

 that part which should be the front of the head is closely applied to the 

 base of the forelegs so that the beak appears to rise from the middle of 

 the breast. The Heteroptera, which may be termed ' running-bugs,' in 

 contradistinction to the Cicadina and Psyllina, which are essentially 

 'jumping-bugs,' comprises a number of species exhibiting considerable 

 diversity of form and habits. Few, if any, of them are likely to attract 

 the notice of the casual observer, though the habits of many species are 

 very interesting. The female of Acanthosoma inter stinc turn, a species com- 

 mon on birch trees in the autumn, has been observed to take charge of 

 its eggs and young in a fashion very unusual among insects. The Rev. 

 John Hellins observed that the female Acanthosoma laid her eggs on the 

 underside of a birch leaf, in number between thirty and forty ; they were 

 laid close together, the outer on their side and the inner ones stood up 

 on end in a somewhat diamond-shaped patch, about the size of the body 

 of the parent insect. The latter then stood brooding over the patch of 

 eggs, and after about three weeks the young bugs were found clustered 

 beneath their mother amongst the empty egg-shells. At first the mother 

 showed no fear and barely moved when touched, only altering her 

 position so as to protect the side on which the danger threatened. In a 

 few days, however, when the young ones had accomplished their first 

 moult and commenced to run about on the leaf, she moved about 

 amongst them in a state of apparent anxiety, and fluttered her wings 

 rapidly if they were disturbed. If the sun shone out and the leaf was 

 still there was a great deal of running to and fro, but at night and when 

 the wind blew roughly, the mother contrived to get the young ones 

 under her, and sat covering them as at first. This state of things con- 

 tinued for about a couple of days, when the young dispersed in small 

 parties, but even at this point the mother seemed desirous to continue her 

 ministrations. A few species associate with ants to which they bear con- 

 siderable resemblance, especially when in motion ; Systellonotus triguttatus 

 furnishes a good example of these. This species is found not uncommonly 

 on the celebrated Mousehold Heath running on the ground in company 

 with a blackish ant ; its male is a bug-like insect about three-sixteenths 

 of an inch long, with reddish brown upper wings traversed by two broad 

 snow-white bands, whilst the female has the merest rudiments of wings, 

 and the body is pinched in at the waist and widened behind so as to give 

 the creature a very ant-like appearance. Passing over the water-boatmen 

 {Notonecta), which are too well-known to call for remark, we have in 

 Ranatra linearis a very curious and interesting form. This is a narrow 

 pale-brown insect with a body about i^ inch long, and two thread-like 

 tails almost as long as the body, and which when brought together form 

 a tube along which air passes to the breathing organs situate at the tip 



163 



