THE LEAF-BUGS 



(Family Capsidce.) 



The usually rather slender and delicate bugs known as " leaf- 

 bugs " or "true plant bugs," having two cells in the wing 

 membrane, belong to this family. More than one thousand 

 species are known, and of these more than two hundred and fifty 

 inhabit the United States. It is undoubtedly the largest group of 

 Heteroptera, and thousands of species are as yet undescribed. 

 Mr. O. Heidemann tells me that he has in his collection more 

 than two hundred undescribed species from the United States. 

 They are not all true plant feeders, and very few of them occur 

 in sufficient numbers to become important crop enemies. Some 

 of them habitually prey on other insects, and I have seen Campto- 

 brochis grandis sucking the eggs of the imported elm-leaf beetle 

 (Galerucella luteola), while Mr. Heidemann states that Lopidea 

 media Say once alighted on the back of his hand, and that (with 

 a true scientific interest) he watched it pierce the skin and suck 

 his blood for some minutes. A common species in the east, 

 Oncognathus binotatus Fabr., frequents the heads of timothy 

 grass. Fulvius anthocoroides Uhl. is found commonly on lichens 

 on old stumps. Lygus pratensis, known as the "tarnished 

 plant bug," is present in all flower and vegetable gardens, and 

 causes what is called the "buttoning" of strawberries. The 

 natural egg place of this common insect is not known, but the 

 rest of its life has been well worked out by Woodworth, although 

 there is probably one more molt than he has observed, i. e., five 

 instead of four. Halticus uhleri Giard, known as the "garden 

 flea-hopper," is common in gardens and is injurious to flowers 

 and vegetables. 



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