Half'Winged Insects 



725 



Photos by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] 

 SHIELD-BUG. 



In tropical countries these bugs are 

 often as large as cockchafers. 



[Regent's Park. 

 JUNIPER- BUG. 



Some species of this family are 

 carnivorous as well as herbivorous. 



HALF-WINGED INSECTS. OR BUGS AND FROG-HOPPERS. 



BY W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S. 



THE order including the Bugs and Frog-hoppers is divided into two sub-orders. There are 

 also one or two small groups, sometimes treated as separate orders, and sometimes regarded 

 as aberrant sections of the order, to which we shall allude later. 



The TRUE BUGS have their fore wings of a horny texture, but generally overlapping, 

 and the extremities form a transparent 

 membrane, resembling that of the hind 

 wings. They have a long sucking-proboscis 

 curved down beneath their bodies, and 

 their antennae usually consist of only four 

 or five long joints. Most are vegetable- 

 feeders, but some species feed on the 

 juices of other insects, while a few attack 

 warm-blooded animals, either casually or 

 habitually. 



The first family includes the SHIELD- 

 BUGS. These derive their name from the 

 unusual development of a part of the 

 thorax called the " scutellum." In most 

 insects it is only a small plate of no great 

 importance, attached to the end of the 

 thorax; but in the Shield-bugs it forms 

 a great solid arch, covering the whole of 

 the wings, and protecting them as the 



wing-cases protect the wings of beetles. There are only a few small species in England, but a 

 great number of beautiful species inhabit warm countries, some of a brilliant blue or green 

 or yellow, or spotted. Many of them are comparatively large insects, nearly an inch long, 

 and resemble brilliantly coloured beetles, from which, however, they can easily be distinguished 

 by the antennae, the proboscis, and the shield, the latter- of which is not divided down the 

 middle like the wing-cases of beetles. 



Next to the Shield-bugs, and 

 considered by many entomologists as 

 belonging to the same group, are 

 the PENTAGONAL SHIELD-BUGS, so 

 called because the scutellum, though 

 much smaller than in the Shield- 

 bugs, is often half as long as the 

 abdomen, and forms a broad triangle, 

 sometimes broken at the sides, so 

 as to make a five- sided plate, 

 lying above the bases of the wings. 

 Several green or brown species of 

 this family, about half an inch long, 

 are common in England among 

 bushes. Many have a very dis- 

 agreeable smell, and hence they are 

 called STINK-BUGS in America. They 

 feed on- vegetable juices, and also 

 frequently on soft-bodied insects. 



inioio by /. Edmu-ds\ 



LACE-WING BUG. 



An elegant little insect, injurious to pear-trees. 



