95 



AN INSECT WITHOUT TASTE FOR COLOR, AND WHICH 

 PREFERS BLOOD TO SWEETS. 



Phymata Wolffii, the Ambush Bug, is a common insect 

 on the flowers of the tield and garden. He is a deadly 

 enemy to honey and bumble bees, large flies and l)utterflies. 

 The appearance of a spider, so different from a winged 

 insect, would seem to be enough to frighten away any of 

 the latter and prevent their capture unless taken unawares 

 in a web, but this demure, winged bug, only two-fifths of 

 an inch long, dressed in quiet yellowish or greenish colors 

 and marked on its back with a brown-colored cross, gives 

 no warning of its sanguinary nature. It is quite innocent 

 looking, :ind appears to have as good a right to visit the 

 flowers as bees or butterflies. It sometimes hides under 

 the petals, especially when they are small and clustered, 

 ])ut quite as frequently takes up a conspicuous position on 

 the flower, where it remains perfectly motionless until the 

 legs of the bee or other insect are in a favorable position, 

 when they are seized by the diminutive but powerful clul)- 

 shaped claw of the bug, stabbed in a vital part l)y the 

 dagger- like proboscis, and their life blood sucked away. 

 In one instance the bee's tongue was seized and by that he 

 was held. It is not pleasant to see a noble insect like a 

 bee, or a beautiful butterfly, or even a drone fly, sacrificed 

 by this worthless thug with the sign of a cross on his back. 

 it is needless to sa}' that the nuirderer is not fastidious as 

 to the color of the flower he visits: yellow, white, red or 

 blue are all the same to him, provided there is a good 

 supply of victims ! 



CRUELTY TO INSECTS. 



The structure of the flo\ver and the manner of pollination 

 in Asclepias is as complicated as in orchids. The five deep 

 wedge-shaped slits in the crown are veritabl(> death-traps to 

 some insects. While spiders have I)cen seen to walk over 



