496 THE MICEOSCOPE. 



The foot of the caterpillar is made up of a series of hook- 

 lets, which enable it to cling to the surface of leaf or stalk of 

 a plant. A magnified view of one is given at No. 5, fig. 247. 

 The Coccina, one of a family group of the order Homo- 

 ptera, comprises numerous minute insects, the history of 

 which is still very imperfectly recorded. Their feet have 

 only one joint ; the males are furnished with two wings, 

 with a few straight nervures; they are destitute of a 

 rostrum, and pass their pupa stage in a state of repose. 

 The females are without wings, but possess a rostrum, 

 and appear to undergo no metamorphosis whatever. 

 These curious little creatures, with a history so singular 

 that some authors have proposed the formation of a 

 separate order for their reception, are principally in- 

 habitants of the warmer regions of the earth, although 

 many species are found in our own country, where some 

 of them are well known to gardeners under the name of 

 " the bug ;" they do great injury to many plants, especially 

 in hothouses. 



It would be impossible to find insects more dissimilar 

 in appearance than the two sexes of Coccina (fig. 251). The 

 females look like a mere fleshy 

 mass, are nearly destitute of limbs, 

 and remain attached to one spot 

 i fZMK^ ~ or branch of the plant, from which 



they continue to imbibe nutri- 

 ment, by the agency of the ros- 

 \ggfejj tram, until they attain a consider- 



^. JH 51 able size. The males, on the con- 



/ r |iy trary, are generally very minute 



and really elegant creatures, 

 ^3 furnished with a single pair of 



Fig. 251. cochineal insect, filmy wings; the only representa- 

 i, Male. 2, Female. tives of the second wings being a 

 pair of organs somewhat similar to the halteres of the 

 Diptera. Hence some etymologists have put forward the 

 opinion that the males of the Coccina are, in reality, dip- 

 terous parasites. The abdomen of the male is generally 

 furnished with a pair of long setae. In most instances the 

 females retain their limbs and power of motion through 

 life ; sometimes they undergo a slight change. 



