16 



Notes on Collecting British Hemiptera. 



By Edward Saunders, F.L.S., F.E.S. Read April 2?>th, 1898. 



It is with great pleasure that I comply with your Secretary's request 

 to supply some remarks on Hemiptera. The order is a favourite of 

 mine, and one which I think is particularly well suited for the study 

 of those who, like myself, have only a very limited time to devote to 

 entomology. In this country it is not a very extensive order, and 

 nearly all the species are obtainable after business hours. As a rule 

 the specific characters are pretty well defined, and are structural, so 

 that any one with a good eye can soon learn to distinguish the species 

 apart. These features of the order make it a very good one for 

 beginners to try their powers upon. 



The number of species in Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, and 

 Hymenoptera may well frighten some from taking them up ; but in 

 this country we have only about 750 species of Hemiptera, and of 

 these the Heteroptera number about 440, so that no one need be 

 alarmed at their multitude As it is with this latter section of 

 the order that I am most famiUar, I will, with your permission, restrict 

 myself to it. 



Before going into methods of collecting, &c., it will be well to say 

 a few words as to how a member of this order, or, in plain language, 

 a " bug," may be recognised when met with. In the first place, its 

 mouth parts are arranged for sucking, and have no external biting 

 jaws, as in the members of the Coleoptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera, 

 or Hymenoptera. This character alone will almost serve to distinguish 

 a bug (at least, one of the Heteroptera), as none that I know of is 

 likely to be confounded with a butterfly or moth. And if any 

 of the more delicate Capsidce could be mistaken for Diptera (which 

 is difficult to imagine), the existence of a pair of posterior wings of 

 membranous texture would reveal their affinities at once. As a rule, 

 they are more liable to be confounded with Coleoptera ; but, besides 

 the essential mouth characters, the wing-cases or upper wings, at any 

 rate in developed forms, are not of one substance throughout, but 

 become membranous towards the apex, the " membrane," as it is 

 called, being clearly divided from the basal or coriaceous portion. 

 On this account the wing-cases in this order are called by some hemi- 

 elytra. These membranes cross at the apex when the wing-cases are 

 folded, and in this respect the latter differ essentially from those of 

 the Coleoptera, in which the suture is straight to the apex. Here, 

 however, it must not be forgotten that I am speaking of developed 

 forms only. Hemiptera in the imago state often assume two distinct 

 forms — the fully developed or "macropterous," where the elytra have 



