MOTHS AND BUGS. 



S9S 



Sub-Order 

 Heteroptera 



{Bng^i). 



Sub-Order Heteroptera. 

 Bugs. 



The word bug is derived from the Arabic, and has nothing etymologically to 

 do with bogy, with which it is popularly associated. It suggests an ugly, foul- 

 smelling, wingless insect, which sucks blood, hides itself in 

 crevices, and shuns the light. In America, however, the 

 word has come to be extended to insects in general. Ento- 

 mologically it is applied to the insects belonging to the sub- 

 order Heteroptera, only some of which suck blood, the 

 greater number feeding on the juices of plants ; and these are as beautiful 

 and varied in form and colour as the beetles ; or more so, in proportion to 

 their numbers, and they are mostly diurnal insects. These insects may easily 

 be recognised, not only by the characters mentioned above, but by the 

 peculiar structure of the antennas, which, though generally of considerable 

 length, are composed of a veiy few long and well-separated joints — generally 

 four or five. 



The Sciitetlridce, or shield-bugs, are those which most resemble beetles, and 

 would be easily mistaken for them at first sight. But the hard convex wing- 

 covering is not formed by wing-cases meeting on their 

 inner edges, as in beetles, but consists of an inordinate 

 development of the appendage to the thorax called the 

 scutellum, under which not only the wings, but the 

 tegmina also, which in such cases differ little in con- 

 sistency from the wings, are completely hidden. These 

 bugs are not numerous in Europe, but in tropical coun- 

 tries they are often as large as a cockchafer, and of 

 brilliant colours. GalUdea perplexa (Hope), here figured, is 

 a common East Indian species, of a brilliant green or 

 purple, with black spots. 



In the family Pentatomidre, the body is still short, broad, 

 and bulky in many of the species, but the scutellum, 

 though still of considerable si2.e, is a long structure, differ- 

 ing in shape, separating more or less of the basal portion of the tegmina, 

 when the wings are closed. Beyond its extremity, the membranous portion 

 of the over-lapping tegmina is generally visible. Several 

 brown or grass-green species belonging to this family are not 

 uncommon in England In many species, especially foreign 

 ones, the front of the thorax expands into a kind of spine or 

 horn on each side, often of considerable length. 



Some species of Pentatomidce are carnivorous as well as 

 herbivorous, and will attack caterpillars and other soft insects, ^.^ ^^ _^„„j. 

 and suck out their juices. Acanthosoma grisenm (Linn.), which thosoma gnseum. 

 is common in England on birch, is an oval insect, about a Linn. Nat. size, 

 third of an inch long. The thorax is angulated in front, 

 and the colour is reddish-ochreous or greenish, finely punctured with black ; 

 at the base of the scutellum is a black patch. Like some of the earwigs and 

 Australian sawflies, the female of this species has been observed to watcn 

 over her newly -hatched young like a hen, and it is said that, as in the case ot 

 the crocodiles, and some othpr animals, her vigilance is chiefly required to 

 guard them against the attacks of the male. 



Fill. 86.— SHIELP-nuG 



(^Callidea perplexa). 



Nat. size. 



