92 THE INSECT WORLD. 



to touch the eyes, causes a considerable amount of irritation. If 

 one of these insects is held between the fingers, so as not to stop 

 up the odoriferous orifices, and to cause this vapour to touch a 

 part of the skin, a spot, either brown or livid, will ensue on that part, 

 which lotions, though repeatedly applied, will at first fail to remove, 

 and which produces in the cutaneous tissue an alteration similar 

 to that which succeeds the application of mineral acids." 



The disagreeable smell exhaled by different species of Pentatoma 

 is the result of a fluid secreted by a single pear-shaped gland, either 

 red or yellow, which occupies the centre of the thorax, and which 

 terminates between the hind legs. 



With the Syromastes, which are bugs of this same section, the 

 secretion has, on the contrary, an agreeable smell, which reminds 

 one of that of apples. Many kinds of Pentatoma are destructive to 

 agriculture. Others, however, attack the destructive insects, and 

 ought therefore to be carefully spared. We will mention in this case 

 the Blue Pentatoma, which kills the Altica^ of the vine. 



There may be observed, at the foot and about the lower part of 

 trees, or at the base of walls exposed to the mid-day sun, groups of 

 fifty or sixty small insects pressed close to each other, and often one 

 on the top of the other, their heads in the direction of a centre 

 point. They are red, spotted with black. In the neighbourhood of 

 Paris the children call them " Suisses," probably on account of the 

 red on their bodies, that being the colour of the uniform of the Swiss 

 troops formerly in the service of France. In Burgundy the children 

 call them ^^ petits cochons rouges.'' They will be found described in 

 Geofiroy's " Histoire des Insectes," under the name of the Red 

 Garden Bug. At the present day they are placed in the genus 

 LygcEus.^ When the bad weather comes, these little " Suisses " take 

 refuge under stones and the bark of trees to pass the winter. During 

 the whole of that season they remain in a sort of torpid state. But 

 in the first days of spring they revive, and resume their ordinary 

 habits. They suck the sap of vegetables, piercing the capsules of 

 divers kinds of mallows, and always keeping in the sunshine. 



The Bug, popularly so called, or Bed Bug {Acajithia ledularia, or 

 Cifnex lectularius, Fig. 70), a most disagreeable and stinking insect, 

 abounds in dirty houses, principally in towns, and above all in those 

 of warm countries. It lives in beds, in wood-work, and paper- 

 hangings. There is no crack, however narrow it may be, into which 

 it is unable to slip. It is nocturnal, shunning the light. "Nocturnum 



* This species is Ly^antis militaris.—'Eii. f A genua of beetles. 



