THE RHYXCHOTA. 101 



of a pea, when nearly all signs of the original segmentation vanish, and the creature appears like a 

 whitish globular bag, with the head and limbs appended to it in front. The skin of the abdomen is 

 thickened, the internal organs become aborted, even the tracheae disappear, and it would seem that 

 the further development of the ova is effected, after a vegetative fashion, by the mere absorption and 

 assimilation of fluids. When mature, the ova are expelled from the free orifice at the apex of the 

 abdomen. 



The older writers gave terrible accounts of the pernicious effects produced by this little insec 4 ", 

 but later authorities, and especially Professor Karsten, speaking from observation and personal 

 experience, do not represent it as quite so formidable. It would seem that a slight tickling and 

 itching are the only symptoms produced by the ingress of the parasite, and that if the part in which 

 it resides is not rubbed or irritated, its whole development may take place with no greater inconveni- 

 ence. Pressure, friction, or irritation of any kind will, however, easily set up an inflammation of the 

 part, and this, if neglected, may assume formidable proportions. Unskilful extraction may also cause 

 disagreeable symptoms, but these are due to mechanical irritation, and not to the deposition of the 

 eggs in the wound produced, as the larva? are not parasites. The extraction of the insect is generally 

 left until it has attained its full size, when the skin of the toe is carefully pushed aside from the 

 globular abdomen with a knife or needle, and the whole body may then be gently removed. The 

 development of the female usually takes less than a week after penetration into the skin of her 

 victim. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

 THE KHYNCHOTA, OR BEAKED INSECTS. 



THE RHYNCHOTA The Rostrum General Form Internal Anatomy Imperfect Metamorphosis Distribution Fossil 

 Species Classification HETEROPTERA, OR BUGS Characters LAND BUGS SCUTATA, OR SHIELD BUGS 

 COREID.E -LYGjEiDjE PYRRHOCORID.E PHYTOCORID^E, OR PLANT BUGS ANTHOCORID.E MEMBRANACEA The Bed 

 Bug REDUVIID.E GERRID* HYDROCORES, OR WATER BUGS GALGULID^E NEPID.E, OR WATER SCORPIONS 

 NOTONECTID.E HOMOPTERA CICADID.E Characters Distribution The Organs of Stridulation FULGORID.E 

 The Great Lantern Fly MEMBRACID.E CICADELLINA Cuckoo Spits Froghoppers PSYLLID* APHIDID^E Plant 

 Lice Hop Fly Reproduction COCCID^E Cochineal PEDICULINA. 



ORDER RHYNCHOTA. 



OUR readers will be inclined to think that they are being introduced to very unsatisfactory 

 company. The last chapter treated of Fleas, and in the present one we have to deal with Bugs, and 

 with some other insects, of which we shall at present only say that, according to Sir Hugh Evans, 

 they are familiar beasts to man, and signify love. It is to be observed, however, that these highly 

 objectionable creatures form but a small part of the order Rhynchota ; that many of them, though 

 often unsavoury, are of great beauty ; and that the natural history of others is exceedingly interesting. 



The Rhynchota constitute the first order of insects with an imperfect metamorphosis, and they 

 have the mouth converted into a suctorial apparatus. They were placed by Linnaeus in the same 

 order as the Grasshoppers, Cockroaches, and allied forms which compose the typical section of the 

 next order (Orthoptera), and the name of Hemiptera, which he gave to this composite group, bears 

 reference to the peculiar construction of the fore wings in the Bugs. This name is still often 

 applied by entomologists to the present order, but as it applies only to one division of the order, and 

 its original use was very much wider, we have preferred following the example of the majority 

 of Continental writers and adopting the name Rhynchota (" beaked insects "), which expresses the 

 leading character by which the order is distinguished. 



As in the case of the Diptera, the suctorial organ in the typical Rhynchota, which is commonly 

 denominated the rostrum, includes in its composition all the principal parts of the mouth. The 

 actual rostrum is a horny jointed organ, forming a longer or shorter tube, cleft above towards the 

 base, and formed by the labium and its palpi, the latter making two half tubes, united in the middle 

 line both above and below, and showing along one surface a suture of junction in continuation of 



