202 Bugs, Cicadas, Aphids, and Scale-insects 



By the edge of pond or stream may be found representatives of two other 

 small families, most striking in appearance and manner, the dark-colored, 

 squat, broad, rough bodied, big-eyed, leaping toad-bugs (Galgulidae) and 

 the smaller, soft, long-oval, long-legged, running shore-bugs (Saldidae). 

 One species of toad-bug, Gelastocoris ocula'us (Figs. 279 a id 280), is common 

 all over the country and may often be found in considerable numbers on 

 the muddy banks of streams and ponds. It lives 

 upon other insects, which it catches by creeping 

 slowly to within a short distance and then suddenly 

 leaping upon and seizing them with its strong front 



FIG. 279. 



FIG. 280. 



FlG. 279. The toad-bug, Gelastocoris oculatus. (Three times natural size.) 

 FIG. 280. Three toad-bugs, Gelastocoris oculatus, " coming en." (Fr. m life; three times 

 (natural size.) 



legs. Toad-bugs vary in general coloration with the mud or soil they are 

 on, so as to harmonize with the ground color and thus be undistinguishable. 

 The shores of a small pond, Lagunita, on the campus of Stanford 

 University, vary much in ground color, three shades, namely, reddish, slaty 

 bluish, and mottled sand color, being the principal 

 ones, and toad-bugs collected from the banks of 

 this pond show very noticeably all these distinct 

 schemes of color. The shore-bugs (Saldidae) are 

 represented by but one genus, Salda (Fig. 281), of 

 thirty or more species, in our country. The insects are 

 about T \ inch long, smooth-bodied, and narrower than 

 the toad-bugs, blackish with white or yellow markings, 

 and have long slender antennae. They prefer stream 

 or pond banks which are weedy or grassy and offer 

 They are common also on seabeaches. They feed 



on drowned flies and other insects, from which they suck the blood. They 

 thus do some good as scavengers. 



The preceding ten families include all of the aquatic and strictly shore- 

 inhabiting Hemiptera. The remaining sixteen families of the suborder 

 Heteroptera, as well as all the families in both other suborders, are terres- 

 trial, being found for the most part (the Parasita wholly excepted) on vegeta- 

 tion, where food, either the juices of the plants, or the blood of other plant- 



FIG. 281. A shore- 

 bug, Snlda sp. (Six 

 ti;nes natural size.) 



good hiding-places. 



