308 THE MICEOSCOPE. 



known to gardeners under the name of " the bug," from the injury 

 they do to many plants, especially in hothouses. 



Nothing can be more dissimilar in appearance than the two sexes 

 of the singular insects Homoptera (fig. 139). The females usually 

 form a mere fleshy mass, often nearly destitute of limbs, and remaining 

 attached to one spot upon the branches of the plant infested by them, 

 from which they continue to suck nutriment, by the agency, of their 

 rostrum, until they attain a considerable size. 

 The males, on the contrary, are generally very 

 minute and really elegant creatures, furnished 

 with a single pair of filmy wings ; the only 

 representatives of the hinder wings being a 

 pair of organs somewhat similar to the ImUeres 



of the Diptera. Hence some etymologists 

 have put forward the opinion that the males of 

 the Coccina are, in reality, dipterous parasites. 

 The abdomen of the male is generally furnished 



with a pair of long filaments. In some in- 

 fig. 139. Cochineal Insect. r . f , & . . . , 



1. Male. 2. Female. stances the females retain their limbs and 



power of motion through life. 



In one genus of Coccina (Dorthesia), several species of which are 

 found in this country, the female which, although apterous, is active 

 in all stages is completely covered with a snow-white secretion, 

 which gives it more the appearance of a little plaster-cast than any 

 thing else. 



Iii a second tribe, the Phytoplithiria, or Plant-lice, both sexes are 

 either wingless or furnished with four distinctly veined wings. The 

 rostrum springs apparently from the breast, and the tarsi are two- 

 jointed and furnished with two claws. 



The greater part of this tribe is composed of the Aphides, or Plant- 

 lice, whose extraordinary history renders them one of the most inter- 

 esting groups of insects. These creatures must be well-known to every 

 one. They are all small animals, with a more or less flask-shaped body, 

 furnished with six feet and a pair of antenna, and usually with a pair 

 of short tubes close to the extremity of the abdomen, from which a 

 clear sweet secretion exudes. Both sexes are sometimes winged, some- 

 times apterous ; and the individuals of the same species are often 

 winged and apterous at different periods of the year. They all live 

 upon plants, the juices of which they suck ; and when they occur in 

 great numbers, often cause great damage to vegetation. Gardeners 

 and farmers are well aware of this. Many plants are liable to be 



