No. l6.] INSECTS OF CONNECTICUT. IJ 



Though found all over the earth, even in the arctic regions, 

 insects are most abundant in the tropics. It is here also that 

 we find the largest and most brilliantly colored species. But 

 some of our own species are no less interesting, if less gorgeous. 



HABITS AND HAUNTS OF INSECTS. 



Most species of insects are terrestrial, though many forms 

 are aquatic, the familiar examples being water bugs and water 

 beetles. Certain other insects, like dragon-flies, caddis-flies, 

 stone-flies, may-flies, mosquitoes, and some other Diptera, are 

 aquatic during the larval stage, but fly about in the air as 

 adults. 



A large proportion of the various kinds of insects feed upon 

 living plant tissues, either destroying the foliage, or boring in 

 the wood of the stem, root, or branches. Others live in the 

 soil and devour small roots of trees and plants. Dead and 

 decaying plant tissues also form the food of a large number of 

 species, and such conditions are found chiefly in connection with 

 the soil. We find also in the soil certain other kinds that do not 

 eat plant tissues, but feed upon the animal life therein ; such 

 insects preying upon other living forms are said to be predaceous 

 or predatory, and may attack other kinds of insects or perhaps 

 certain other small animals. Beetles of the family Carabidae 

 are a good example, though some kinds are not always found in 

 the soil, but frequent trees and fly about in the air in search of 

 their prey. Some of the two- winged flies (order Diptera) and 

 hornets (order Hymenoptera) have the same habit. Beetles 

 of the families Silphidse and Staphylinidae are known as carrion 

 beetles, and, in company with two-winged flies known as carrion 

 flies, are found about dead animals of all kinds. The beetles feed 

 upon the decaying animal matter, and the flies breed therein, 

 their larvae feeding upon it. 



A host of the insects are animal parasites. The biting lice 

 or bird lice (order Mallophaga) and the sucking lice of mammals 

 (order Hemiptera) are small insects, mostly light colored or 

 transparent, feeding upon the blood or skin of the host, and 

 frequenting the most protected parts of the body, where they 

 crawl about among the hairs. Other parasites of a similar 

 nature are the sheep ticks (order Diptera) and fleas (order 



