64 



SCHOOL ENTOMOLOGY 



off squarely or rounded, not pointed. They have also very 

 strange growths on the prothorax which almost entirely 

 covers the head and projects backward and covers the 

 greater part of the wings and the abdomen. Its varied 

 shapes are often ludicrous and laughable and give the 

 insects the locally common name " Brownie-bugs." Both 



families of hoppers 

 are plant eaters and 

 attack many eco- 

 nomic plants. Possibly 

 the worst common 

 forms are the leaf- 

 hoppers on the grape 

 and the apple and the 

 tree-hopper, known as 

 the "Buffalo tree- 

 hopper." Many tree- 

 hoppers are injurious 

 from their egg-laying 

 habits, damaging 

 twigs in this way, 

 but are harmless so 

 far as their feeding 

 is concerned. Leaf- 

 hoppers, on the other hand, feed like the plant lice 

 and are even more difficult to control because they are 

 much more active. 



By far the most important of the Homoptera and, in- 

 deed, among the most important of all insects are the 

 two families known as Scale-insects (Coccidce), and plant- 

 lice or Aphids (Aphididce). 



Scale Insects will not be at first recognized as insects 

 or even as living animals by the amateur. They are ap- 



FIG. 39. Different Stages of a Scale- 

 insect. After Howard, U. S. Dept. 

 Agr. Highly magnified. 



a. Adult male; c, Young nymph ; e, Adult fe- 

 male from beneath. 



