340 



An Orchid Bug. 



gressive development of wing-pads. The colour of the insect 

 in these stages is yellowish with wide black lines on the 

 thorax, while the wing-pads, or rudimentary wings, are black. 

 There are very slight markings or borderings of red upon the 

 sides of the body and on the margins of the wing-pads, which 

 become rather intensified after the first and second moults. 

 The bugs have six legs and an enormously long rostrum or 

 sucking apparatus, which in the early nymphal stage is two- 

 thirds the length of the body ; but in the later nymphal stages 

 it is not so disproportionately long. 



The perfect insect is bright blood- red with black or blackish- 

 brown markings. Its head is blood-red and the black eyes 

 are very large and prominent ; it has two broad black 

 stripes on the thorax extending down the wing-cases ; 

 its six legs are red, with dark brown feet ; and its three- 

 jointed antennae are dark brown. Its rostrum extends to 

 half the length of the body, though it is not so long as in the 

 nymphal stages of the insect ; it is composed of a tube with a 

 sharp red point which works in a case, or groove, and within 

 the tube are sharp lancet-like suckers which are thrust intO' 

 the leaves for the extraction of their juices. 



Nothing more is known of the insect at present. In all 

 probability the eggs are laid upon the orchid stems, in their 

 peculiar folds, and the perfect insects and nymphs retire 

 during the day into the sphagnum, moss, or peat surrounding 

 the roots. The insect is no doubt brought over with imported 

 orchids, and in some orchid-houses it seems to have gained 

 a permanent habitation. 



With regard to means of prevention and remedies, it is- 

 necessary that all plants newly imported, or newly acquired, 

 should be carefully examined. Of course it is difiicult to do 

 this satisfactorily, as the insects in the egg state and in the 

 early nymphal stages can hardly be discerned without a 

 magnifying glass, and in these forms they may easily escape 

 detection. Spraying with quassia and soft soap has been 

 practised with advantage. Dusting with tobacco powder 

 was of no apparent benefit. 



