144 the study of insects. 
of it is the nature of the venation of the membrane of the 
wing-covers. This part is furnished with many 
veins, most of which spring from a cross-vein near 
_ . its base (Fig. 176). 
Fig. 176. v & / y . . , . , 
The Squash-bug, Anasa tnstis (An a-sa tris - 
tis), is a good example of this great family. These when full- 
grown are brownish-black bugs, with some yellow spots 
along the edges of the abdomen (Fig. 177), 
and are dirty yellow on the under side. This 
bug winters in the adult state, and takes the 
first opportunity in the spring to lay its eggs 
on the earliest sprouts of squash and pumpkin 
vines. As soon as they hatch, the young bugs 
attack the vines and are apt to destroy them 
entirely. The remedy is to protect the young 
plants by frames covered with netting. 
Family PENTATOMlDAi (Pen-ta-tom'i-dae). 
The Stink-bug Family. 
This is a family the taste and odor of which most of us 
know to our sorrow. We learn the flavor in one experience, 
and conclude that once is enough for a lifetime. To those 
who live in cities it may always remain a mystery why one 
berry looking just like another should taste and smell so 
differently; but all barefooted boys and sun-bonneted girls 
from the country who have picked the wild strawberries on 
the hillsides or scratched their hands and faces in raspberry 
patches know well the angular green or brown bugs that 
leave a loathsome trail behind them ; and they will tell you, 
too, that the bugs themselves are worse than their trail, for 
it is a lucky youngster that has not taken one of these insects 
into his mouth by mistake with a handful of berries. 
It should not be concluded, however, that only members 
of this family possess this disagreeable odor; for most of the 
Heteroptera protect themselves by rendering their bodies 
unpalatable in this way. Doubtless birds soon learn this 
Fig. 177 .—Anasa 
tristis. 
