44 BIRDS IN THEIR RELATIONS TO MAN. 



berries and in the twigs of various fruit- and shade-trees, 

 making longitudinal slits that cause the death of the cane or 

 twig. The adult tree-crickets feed to a considerable extent 

 upon aphides, and so are by no means an unmixed evil. 

 They are occasionally eaten by birds. 



The most destructive species of the Hemiptera, or half- 

 winged insects, is the chinch-bug, a pest that often causes 

 losses amounting to millions of dollars in a single State and a 

 single season. The adult is a blackish insect, slightly less than 

 one-fifth of an inch long, with the legs dark yellow and their 

 tips black. The young do not differ from the adult in general 

 form. When first hatched they are pale yellow, but they 

 soon become red ; this continues to be the prevailing color 

 until the pupa or last nymph stage is reached ; the insect is 

 then grayish or brownish black. The eggs are small and 

 amber-colored. These pests attack corn 

 and small grains in enormous numbers, 

 sucking out the sap and thus weakening 

 or destroying the plants. 



The chinch-bug is the type of a large 

 group of the true bugs called the Heter- 

 optera, another typical example of which 

 is the tarnished plant-bug, illustrated 

 herewith. There are many different 

 M*gm^.~~(AMG^m' m .) families in this suborder, a large propor- 

 tion of which are protected from being 

 eaten by birds by their disagreeable odor, which is doubtless 

 the accompaniment of an equally disagreeable taste. 



The other suborder of the Hemiptera — called the Homop- 

 tera — includes several important families of noxious insects, 

 the members of which, fortunately, enter largely into the food 

 of birds. The most notable of these families are those of the 

 leaf-hoppers and the plant-lice. 



The leaf-hoppers of the family Jassidce are very often 

 found in the stomachs of birds. These insects are small 



TAENISHED PLANT-BUG. 



