CHAPTER VII 



Hemiptera : The True Bugs 



WHILE the word bug has been in common English use 

 for a long time as applying to an insect of almost any kind, 

 the entomologists restrict the word to a certain group of 

 insects which they call Hemiptera or Half-winged Insects. 

 The mouth parts of the members of this order are formed 

 for sucking, and the transformations are incomplete, their 

 life changes resembling those of the grasshoppers rather 

 than those of the butterflies and moths. An immense 



this 



group, 



number of noxious insects are included in 

 some of the most notorious being the Squash 

 Bug, Chinch Bug, the various kinds of aph- 

 ides or plant lice and of the scale insects or 

 bark lice, the Periodical Cicada, and many 

 other equally injurious pests. 



The life history of these insects is well il- 

 lustrated by that of the common Black Squash 

 Bug. This pest appears in the garden in 

 early summer, and the females soon deposit 

 their eggs upon the young squash plants. 

 These eggs are small, rounded objects, more 

 or less triangular in their general outline. In 

 from six to fifteen days they hatch into tiny- 

 bugs, which grow into the form and size of the parents. 



The newly hatched Squash Bug is more brilliantly colored 

 than at any later time in its life, and these colors make it 

 very conspicuous against the green background of the 



73 



SQUASH BUG 

 Magnified 



