434 
THE BUG. 
Thcfe eggs, when viewed with a microfcope, prefent 
Angular varieties of configuration : Some are crowned 
with a row of fmall hairs ; others wear a circular fillet ; 
and the greater number have a cappice, which the larva 
pulhes off when it burfts open the egg. Releafed by na- 
ture from their prifons, the young overfpread thofe plants 
upon which they feed, extraditing, by means of the roft- 
rum, thofe juices which are proper for their nourilh- 
ment. Even in this ftate, the larvae begin to renounce 
their graminivorous and peaceable habits ; fome of them 
are voracious in an eminent degree, and fpare no fmall 
animal that comes in their way 
This feems indeed but a prelude to that ferocity which 
thefe creatures difpiay in their perfect ftate : Then they 
deftroy caterpillars, flies, and many of the coleopterous 
inUfts, which feem protefted from their affaults by the 
hardnefs ot their wings : They are then mere cannibals, 
who glut themielves with the blood of every animal, not 
excepting even thofe of their own genus. 
The cimex hiofeiami of Linnteus , or hen-bane bug, 
from its refidence on the plant that bears that name, is 
deferibed by Ray under the appellation of the fmaller 
wood bug. Its body is of an oblong and narrow 
fiiape : Above, the infect is red, variegated with black 
fpots f . 
Another fpecies is alfo found on the hen-bane, with 
brown wings, decorated with white fpots ; it is deferib- 
ed by Li mucus in the Fauna Sivecica t, and is twice the 
• fize 
? Barbut’s Gen. Infefl, Ord. II. Gen. 8. f Rai Infed. p. 55. 
| And his Voyage to Oelande, p. ijj. 
