192 



INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 

 THE WHEEL-BUGr. 



(Prionotus cristatusj Linn.) 

 [Fig. 93.] 



FIG. 93. Prionotua cristatut. (After Glover.) 



This large bug is not uncommon in orange groves. Its body and legs 

 are covered with a coat of very fine, close down, giving it an ash-gray 

 color 5 the thorax rises in a semi circular ridge, which is provided with 

 short, projecting spines, regularly placed, like the teeth of a cog-wheel ; 

 the head is small, but is armed with a powerful beak, which is capable 

 of giving a poisonous stab, more painful to man than the sting of a 

 hornet. 



Mr. Glover, in the Eeport of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 

 1875, gives an extended account of this insect, a? , v^iows that it is very 

 voracious in all its stages ; the young prey upon Aphis and other small 

 or soft-bodied insects, and after paralyzing them with their deadly sting 

 suck and empty them of their juices. 



The eggs are urn-shaped, as shown in the figure, and are deposited in 

 large clusters, firmly cemented to each other, and placed in all sorts of 

 situations, but usually upon some firm support, su,ch as the trunk of a 

 tree or the side of a building, or fence rail. 



The young wheel bugs are bright red with black markings. 



The Green Soldier-bug (Raphigaster liilaris Fitch), the two species 

 of Metapodius (M. femoratus, and M. terminalis), with the closely allied 

 species, Euthochtha galeator Fabr., have already been noticed as partly 

 plant-feeding, but with rapacious habits also. 



