INSECTS INJURIOUS TO CUCUMBER, MELON, ETC. 163 



north, the insects deposit their eggs, attaching them by an ad- 

 hesive secretion to the leaves in masses of three or four to 

 forty or more. The eggs are metallic brown or bronze and 

 flattened on three sides. They are laid usually on the under 

 side of a leaf, but not infrequently on the upper side, in more 

 or less regular rows (fig. 108, b). They hatch in from eight 

 to thirteen days into small, green and black creatures, which 

 resemble somewhat the mature insects, having proportionately 

 longer legs and antennae. In this period of its existence, the 

 first nymph stage (fig. 108, c), the insect lives in colonies, at 



Fig. \09.—Trichopoda pennipes. Tachina fly parasite. Three times natural size 

 (Author's illustration, U. S- Dept. Agr.) 



first remaining close together upon the leaf near where the 

 eggs were laid, but later congregating about the bases of leaf- 

 stalks or hiding, together with individuals of the more ad- 

 vanced stages, under clods or rubbish or in any convenient 

 retreat, and coming forth toward dusk in search of food. The 

 nymphs cast their skins five times before reaching the mature 

 condition, increasing their growth with each molt. In its last 

 stage the squash bug continues to feed, but with the disappear- 

 ance of its food supply, caused by the dying or clearing away of 

 the crop on which it has fed, it seeks shelter in any convenient 

 rubbish, under boards or stones, dead vegetation, or under 



