ENTOMOLOGY IN OUTLINE HEMIPTERA. 39 



upon other animals, and protect themselves by hiding on the body of 

 their host, or crawling away in cracks and crevices, to issue in the night 

 when all is still and suck the blood of their victims. This group is 

 known as Parasita, and will need little further allusion, as it only 

 indirectly affects the orchardist and farmer. 



The Hemiptera is one of the most numerous of all the orders. It 

 includes over five thousand known species in North America, and to it 

 belongs the one suborder which the entomologist recognizes as "bugs/' 

 To the lay mind all insects are bugs, but to the scientific mind the 

 term brings up a member of the order Hemiptera heteroptera; these 

 -are the true bugs. 



Like the preceding order, the metamorphosis is direct or incomplete. 

 The young insect, as soon as hatched, strongly resembles the adult in 

 shape, and, in many cases, in coloring. It is wingless in its earlier 

 stages, and in some species always so, and passes through several molts 

 in attaining its adult form. The winged species acquire their perfect 

 wings after the last molt. 



The members of this order are very diverse in form, size, and mark- 

 ings, and there is no order in which there is such disparity in the 

 appearance of the different families. We have within it the Cicada 

 and the mealy-bug, the giant water-bug, which is attracted to the elec- 

 tric light in such great numbers as to have acquired the name of 

 "electric-light bug," and the common scale-bug. In it we find giants 

 of the insect world, and species so minute as to require a strong glass 

 to make them visible. But all through, there is one characteristic 

 which is possessed in common by all, big and little alike they are all 

 suckers, and live by imbibing the juices or blood of plants and animals. 

 They form the greater part of the Haustellates, or sucking insects, the 

 other half of the insect world being known as the Mandibulates, or 

 biters a very respectable group compared with the one we are now 

 treating on. The mouth parts are formed for piercing and sucking, and 

 vary in length in different species. The sucking beak can readily be 

 seen by examining the insect, where it will be detected on the under 

 side, folded close to the body. In many species there is a groove into 

 which the beak fits snugly when not in use, and in these it is sometimes 

 difficult to detect it. This beak is really a compound instrument, and 

 is composed of four bristles inclosed in a jointed sheath. Two of these 

 bristles are supposed to represent the mandibles and two the maxillae 

 of the mandibulate insects, while the sheath takes the place of the 

 labium. 



As stated, this order is divided into three suborders : 1. Parasita; 

 2. Homoptera; 3. Heteroptera. 



Of the first of these, little more need be said. Nearly every animal 

 and most birds have a particular species of lice which prey upon them, 

 and people engaged in breeding animals and fowls are sometimes con- 

 fronted with a serious problem in getting rid of them. This is said to 



