THE BED-BUG 283 



mounted whole as opaque objects for the microscope, 

 under the name of Ting is. The other two segments 

 which go to make up the complete thorax are not very 

 easy to trace above, though evident enough beneath. 

 The only part that appears prominently is a central 

 triangular plate of the mesothorax, called the scutellum. 

 On each side of this we see the fore- wings, which are 

 in a very rudimentary condition, and, fortunately for 

 our comfort and peace of mind, quite useless for 

 flight. 



In these little scale-like appendages can still be recog- 

 nised, though in a greatly abbreviated form, one of the 

 essential elements of the hemipterous wing ; and it will 

 be necessary here to consider the general plan of the 

 complete wing, if we are to understand the ridiculously 

 reduced and utterly inefficacious scraps which the bed- 

 bug retains, perhaps as the relics of a former super- 

 abundance. In hemipterous insects generally, then, the 

 fore- wings, or rather elytra, are so constructed that some 

 of the principal nervures divide them very distinctly 

 into separate areas, at the junctions of which the wing 

 can be angularly bent downwards. The degree to which 

 this is the case varies in different species, and we will 

 take one of the commonest insects we possess as illus- 

 trating a very usual type, and one of considerable com- 

 plexity. During the summer months there may be 

 found in profusion on many wayside weeds, as well as 

 on plants in gardens, a bright green insect, a little over 

 a quarter of an inch long, which by an inspection of its 

 mouth, or by its odour, may be easily recognised as a 

 member of the order Hemiptera. Its name is Calocoris 

 bipunctatus, and it is an active four-winged creature, 

 which readily takes to flight; a few specimens may 

 easily be secured in a pill-box, and thence transferred 



