Insects on the Farm 



159 



them as a soil on which to grow a fungus which they 

 do eat. These ants are real "farmer insects," in that 

 the food they eat is grown by their own efforts. Carbon 

 bisulfide, poured into their nest, sometimes destroy 

 the colony. 



(c) By Sucking the Juices. We may distinguish 

 another group of insects by the way they get their food 

 from the plant or animal. Instead of having jaws with 

 which they may bite off and chew their food, their 

 mouth parts are shaped into a kind of tube which they 



Fig. 99. Squash bug. A, eggs on leaf; 6, egg-shell; c, d, e, f, nymphs; g, adult. 

 After Chittenden. Bureau of Entomology, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



use to suck blood or sap. The squash-bug (Fig. 99), 

 and the chinch-bug get their food by sucking. Plant 

 lice, such as the green bug, and San Jose scale (Fig. 100) 

 are also sucking insects. 



