110 NATURE STUDY REVIEW [10:3— Mar., 1914 



The next day's recitation was given to reports and continued 

 observation of the insects. This was the first time that most of 

 the students had looked closely at an insect and the answers to 

 their questions brought out just the kind of information that any 

 student of insects should have. How does it eat?, resulted in an 

 ■examination of the mouth and the finding of the long, piercing, 

 sucking tube. Can they fly ?, led to a study of the wings, the method 

 of overlapping, the difference in texture between the fore and 

 hinder portions of the outerwings, the more delicate inner wings, 

 the hooking together of the outer and inner in flight. 



By the time all the questions were answered the students had 

 identified the body divisions — the antennae, the compound and 

 simple eyes, the number of legs and wings, to what part of the 

 body these are attached, and the segmented abdomen. 



One student remarked, "My insects are not all alike. I found 

 them together and I guess they are all squash bugs but two of them 

 are smaller and not the same color as the other one. Are they 

 young ones?" 



This introduced the topic of the life history, growth and develop- 

 ment. The students again visited the garden, collected specimens of 

 all the different stages represented, compared the young with each 

 other and with the adults, noting resemblances and differences. 

 One boy was fortunate enough to find a cluster of egg shells on a 

 withered leaf. We now had, besides the egg, four stages of the 

 life history. The term, incomplete metamorphosis, was learned. 



A large battery jar with a wire screen for a cover was arranged 

 for the immature specimens. Pieces of the squash fruit and a leaf 

 or two were placed in it for food. The class had the joy of seeing 

 one after another of the immature insects change to adults leaving 

 their cast off skins clinging to the leaves. 



The question of how the squash bug spends the winter was left 

 unsolved for a number of weeks. After the students had found a 

 number of the adult insects on screens and windows, and in cracks 

 and crevices, and when those kept in boxes in a cool place ceased 

 to eat and crept down under leaves and became very stupid the 

 conclusion was that they must winter in the adult stage. 



Before we had finished the study of the squash bug a student 

 announced that he had found a tree trunk completely covered with 

 red and black insects that looked something like squashbugs. 

 The class visited the tree and found hundreds of box elder bugs. 



