Dec. 7, lb83.] 



♦ KNOWJLEDGE 



347 



their attachment to the body, so as to leave a triangular 

 space, which is occupied by a sort of scutcheon. This 

 latter is often brightly and conspicuously coloured, and is 

 sometimes so large as almost entirely to cover body, wings, 

 and all. The head is very small, but is often borne on 

 enormously broad shoulders — if I may use such a term 

 with reference to an insect. The head carries a pair of 

 jointed appendages which may be likened to strings of 

 exceedingly-attenuated sausages. These go by the name 

 of " antennae," and in insects generally are composed of a 

 largo number of minute joints, but in the present order of 

 a small number of elongated pieces. The middle of the 

 head is prolonged into a kind of snout, from which there 

 proceeds a long-jointed sort of sheath, which, when not in 

 use, is folded back underneath the body, as one might 

 imagine an elephant's trunk might be turned back between 

 its fore-legs. It can be brought out from this position, and 

 stretched in a sloping direction in front of the head. It 

 carries inside four long, sharp-pointed bristles, which can 

 be used to pierce minute holes in the tissues of the animal 

 or plant upon whose juices the creature feeds. The legs 

 of bugs, which are six in number, as usual amongst insects, 

 are long and slender, and forcibly suggest the necessity for 

 much padding if one would produce any semblance of 

 calves. 



I am afraid I cannot acquit these insects of the charge 

 of smelling badly. In some of the larger bugs the smell is 

 worse than that of Acautlila, and of the same nature. If 

 you are "sweeping" with your net, i.e., passing it back- 

 wards and forwards amongst rank herbage, and happen to 

 enclose one, you will probably be informed of its presence 

 by your nose before your eye detects it ; but in the 

 majority of our British species the smell is only slight, and 

 frequently almost imperceptible, and in all it passes away 

 with death. Some even exhale a fragrant odour. The 

 smell is produced by a fluid which is excreted from two 

 small openings on the under surface of the body, and is, no 

 doubt, protective in function. Some bugs, especially the 

 soft ones, take very readily to the wing, others never fly at 

 all, l)ut grovel on the ground, roaming about amongst the 

 roots of plants or amongst rubbish, or clinging to the stems 

 and leaves of the plants themselves. 



Tliey appear during the summer months, and but few 

 are to be found at other seasons. They pass through a 

 series of changes, after the manner of insects in general. 

 The young l)ug, when first hatched, is not very unlike the 

 adult in general appearance, though very small and wing- 

 less ; by a rapid imbiliition of nutritious juices, it increases 

 its corporation till the inner man (or rather bug) becomes 

 too great for the outer, when the skin bursts and a new 

 creature emerges, larger and somewhat altered in colour 

 and shape ; the same thing goes on again, and is repeated 

 until the final form is reached, each new stage presenting a 

 closer approximation to the appearance of the adult. In 

 the penultimate stage the rudiments of wings put in an 

 appearance, but true wings are never present till the final 

 stage. During all these preliminary transformations, the 

 integument of the insect is soft and yielding, even in the 

 case of tliose that acquire great hardness when arrived at 

 perfection. The object of this is obvious. It would be 

 fatal for the creatures to be encased in an inflexible armour 

 during the earlier part of their career ; there would l)e no 

 room for expansion, and so no possibility of growth ; but 

 when the final stage is reached, there is no such difficulty, 

 for perfect insects do not grow, though they go on 

 eating. TJie food taki^n by the perfect bug, no doubt, 

 goes to assist it in its reproductive function, which 

 is really the only business it has to perform when 

 fully grown, and previously to this stage this function 



has been impossible, as the insect has been sexually imma- 

 ture. 



Bugs, then, differ from the majority of insects in not 

 passing through a quiescent stage previous to the assump- 

 tion of the adult form. Those insects which pass through 

 such a stage, which is familiarly known in the butterflies 

 and moths as the " chrysalis," are in their earliest life 

 totally unlike what they are destined to develop into, and 

 during their quiescent pupahood the vast modifications that 

 have to take place before the creature appears in its adult 

 form, are elaborated out of the store of nutriment laid up 

 in the body during the preliminary stages. Now the bugs 

 are already, at the commencement of their life, so similar 

 in general form to their adult shape that the changes they 

 have to undergo are comparatively trifling, and therefore 

 no quiescent stage seems to be necessary. Bugs live entirely 

 upon juices which they extract from plants or animals. 

 The hard bugs seem to favour an animal and the soft ones 

 a vegetable diet ; this, however, must not by any means be 

 taken as a hard and fast rule. Some are attached to special 

 plants, apparently because they either derive their nutri- 

 ment directly from the plant, or indirectly from other insects 

 that feed upon the same plants. 



As a rule, they are not to be regarded as coming under 

 the category of useful insects. When a plant is, so to 

 speak, tapped, and its juices gradually absorbed, it, of 

 course, tends to become weak, shrivelled, stunted, and un- 

 healthy ; and, therefore, any creature which feeds on 

 vegetable juices may be reckoned, a priori, as likely to 

 become injurious to man, since his welfare so largely 

 depends upon the vegetable produce of the soil. But, in 

 this particular instance, little damage seems to be done, as 

 the plants principally attacked are wild species of no 

 economic importance. There are a few plants which seem 

 specially liable to the attacks of bugs ; the different kinds 

 of grasses are much infested, furze and broom have each 

 their special inhabitants, nettles and thistles afford a home 

 and food to large numbers, rest-harrow and heath are much 

 frequented by some species, and amongst trees, oak, hazel, 

 sallow, birch, ash, and fir have each their own peculiar 

 hemipterous fauna. Amongst those which imbibe the 

 stronger aliment, there is one large species that inhabits 

 outhouses, lumber-rooms, etc., and it is sufficiently canni- 

 balistic to prey upon its near relative, the bed-bug. It is 

 popularly called the Fly-bug, and is in its earlier stages 

 much addicted to the curious habit of piling little particles 

 of dust upon its back ; these adhering to the hair that cover 

 its body give it a peculiar fluffy appearance. 



If you would see bugs at home and pry into the secrets 

 of their life, go in July or August to a flourishing bed of 

 nettles or thistles, or to some luxuriant patches of rag- 

 wort, sit down Vieside the plants and carefully look them 

 over, without disturbing them. It will be surprising if you 

 do not see plenty of bugs of a fairly active character 

 engaged in seeking their livelihood or courting their 

 spouses. They will he chiefly green, a favourite colour 

 with so/l bugs, and may easily be recoguistxl by the 

 characters of wings and beak referred to above, for there 

 are no other insects to which those descriptions apply. If 

 you wish to secure them, a bag of stout calico attached to 

 an iron ring and stuck in a handle should be vigorously 

 and rapidly drawn backwards and forwards across any 

 patch of rank herbage, and in tliis way with very little 

 trouble large numbers will be obtained. They will gene- 

 rally prove very active in the net, and many will be sure 

 to escape either by flight or by running over the edge of 

 the net ; still, a sufficient stock may easily be obtained by 

 a few sweepings, and may be transferred to pill-boxes, in 

 which they will safely travel. 



