208 AN INTRODUCTION TO ENTOMOLOGY. 



ers and an arc on the base of the prothorax, and also the scutellum, 

 are pale brown. The wing-covers have the costal margin, a 

 narrow line bordering the base of the membrane and continuing 

 diagonally along the outer margin of the clavus, and also a slender 

 streak on the inner margin of the clavus, pale yellow. It varies 

 much in size, ranging from 10 mm. to 16 mm. (0.4 in. to 0.63 in.) in 

 length." From time immemorial this has been one of the worst 

 pests with which the cotton-planters of Florida and the West Indies 

 have had to contend ; it would be difficult to estimate the immense 

 loss it has occasioned. It does much damage by piercing the stems 

 and bolls with its beak and sucking the sap, but the principal injury 

 to the crop is from staining the cotton in the opening boll by its ex- 

 crement. I found also in Florida that this insect is sometimes very 

 injurious to oranges; it punctures the rind of the fruit with its ros- 

 trum ; and soon decay sets in, and the fruit drops. The principal 

 injury seems to have been done where cotton was planted in close 

 proximity to the orange-groves. On one occasion I received the 

 eggs of this insect from Florida ; they were laid in a group of 

 twenty-one upon the under side of an orange-leaf. They were am- 

 ber colored, and oval in shape ; they appeared smooth and glistening 

 to the naked eye, but an examination with a lens showed them to be 

 densely covered with hexagonal impressions. The young bugs are 

 bright red with black legs and antennae. These insects can be trapped 

 in cotton-fields by laying chips of sugar-cane upon the earth near 

 the plants ; in orange-groves small heaps of cotton-seed will be found 

 useful, as well as pieces of sugar-cane. The insects which collect 

 upon these traps can be destroyed with hot water. 



Family XXX. LYG.EIM;.* 



The Lygaeidae is another one of the large families of the Heter- 

 optera. It includes certain forms which closely resemble members 

 of the preceding family in size, form, and strongly contrasting colors. 

 But the great majority of the species are of smaller size and less 

 brightly colored ; and all differ from that family in presenting dis- 

 tinct ocelli. The membrane of the wing-covers is furnished with 

 four or five simple veins, which arise from the base of the mem- 

 brane ; sometimes the two inner veins are joined to a cell near the 



*Lygaeidae, Lygseus : lygaos (A.vyaioS), dark. 



