BUGS. 249 



and legs speckled with black. The wing-covers are bluish purple, when fresh, coated 

 with whitish powder. It measures about one half of an inch to the tip of the wing- 

 covers, and lives upon wild grapevines, blackberry bushes, and various other plants in 

 fertile soil about the edges of woods. 



Proconia costalis is a small, brownish black species, with a white line passing 

 around the blunt head, and continuing along the sides to the end of the abdomen. 

 The head, thorax, and all beneath are sprinkled with white ; the wing-covers red, line- 

 ated with black and yellow, and the legs are black striped with white. Its length is 

 about one third of an inch to the tip of the wing-covers. It is distributed from the 

 extreme north, near Mackenzie River, throughout all the low country as far south as 

 Mexico, and occurs occasionally in most parts of the Atlantic region not far from the 

 coast. On the great plains and near the Rocky Mountains it swarms upon the buffalo 

 grass, especially in jjlaces which are somewhat damp, or near water. 



Its larvae and nymphs are very conspicuous, having a great, stout head attached 

 to a rapidly tapering body, of a pale yellow color striped with dark brown. 



The genus Diedrocephala is represented in North America by grass green, or pale 

 green, spindle-shaped insects, which may be always recognized by the long, deltoid 

 head, as seen from above. The head is generally marked with a few arcuated, short, 

 black lines, and has the fore part of thorax and scutellum of a yellow ground color. D. 

 mollipes has the abdomen, legs, and body beneath pale-clay yellowish, the lines across 

 the front and those of the vertex black, the wing-covers margined with yellow, 

 especially upon the costa and suture bounding the clavus, and the veins of the wing- 

 covers blue, while those of the cells of the membrane are green. It measures about 

 one third of an inch in length, and sometimes swarms upon grass, mint, and low herbs 

 in damp spots adjacent to watercourses. The salt marshes of the Atlantic States fur- 

 nish places of shelter for it, where it may be found on the reedy grasses, in all stages, 

 from June until October. 



Other species bearing a close resemblance to this, but differing in the shape and 

 proportions of the vertex and in its pattern of marking, may be found in British 

 America, the northern States, in Florida, Texas, Mexico, and California. 



Sub-Oeder III. — Hetbroptera. 



This division differs from the Homoptera in the composition and position of the 

 wing-covers, and in the direction of the head. The wing-covers are laid flat on the 

 back, and are composed of three well-separated portions, — the corium, or dense part 

 extending from the base ; the clavus, which bounds the scutellum ; and the membrane, 

 a thin end piece which intimately overlaps its fellow, and is distinctly veined. Besides 

 these, there is sometimes a triangular piece at the end of the corium, next the base of 

 the membrane, which is particularly distinct in the family Phytocoridse and its allies, 

 called the cuneus. All of these parts are modified in a great variety of ways, being 

 either narrow or wide, long or short, expanded behind, toothed, hairy, or bald, and 

 crustaceous, coriaceus, or even semi-membranous throughout the larger portion. 



The head is placed horizontally, being let into a socket formed by a hollow in the 

 front end of the prothorax ; and the rostrum (usually of four joints) is attached to or 

 directly beneath the tip. An exception to this occurs in the Corisidse, where the 

 head overlaps the front of the prothorax, and is secured there by a narrow gullet, as 

 in horse-flies and some other Diptera, and in certain dragon-flies. The prothorax is 



