202 
Bugs, Cicadas, Aphids, and Scale-insects 
By the edge of pond or stream may be found representatives of two other 
small families, most striking in appearance and manner, the dark-colored, 
squat, broad, rough bodied, big-eyed, leaping toad-bugs (Galgulidae) and 
the smaller, soft, long-oval, long-legged, running shore-bugs (Saldidae). 
One species of toad-bug, Galgulus oculatus (Figs. 279 and 280), is common 
all over the country and may often be found in considerable numbers on 
the muddy banks of streams and ponds. It lives 
upon other insects, which it catches by creeping 
slowly to within a short distance and then suddenly 
leaping upon and seizing them with its strong front 
Fig. 279. Fig. 280. 
Fig. 279.—The toad-bug, Galgulus oculatus. (Three times natural size.) 
Fig. 280.—Three toad-bugs, Galgulus oculatus, “coming on.” (From life; three times 
(natural size.) 
iegs. Toad-bugs vary in general coloration with the mud or soil they are 
on, so as to harmonize with the ground color and thus be undistinguishable. 
The shores of a small pond, Lagunita, on the campus of Stanford 
University, vary much in ground color, three shades, namely, reddish, slaty 
bluish, and mottled sand color, being the principal 
ones, and toad-bugs collected from the banks of 
this pond show very noticeably all these distinct 
schemes of color. The shore-bugs (Saldidae) are 
represented by but one genus, Saida (Fig. 281), of 
thirty or more species, in our country. The insects are 
about t 3 ¥ inch long, smooth-bodied, and narrower than 
the toad-bugs, blackish with white or yellow markings, 
and have long slender antennae. They prefer stream 
or pond banks which are weedy or grassy and offer 
They are common also on seabeaches. They feed 
on drowned flies and other insects, from which they suck the blood. They 
thus do some good as scavengers. 
The preceding ten families include all of the aquatic and strictly shore- 
inhabiting Hemiptera. The remaining sixteen families of the suborder 
Heteroptera, as well as all the families in both other suborders, are terres¬ 
trial, being found for the most part (the Parasita wholly excepted) on vegeta¬ 
tion, where food, either the juices of the plants, or the blood of other plant- 
Fig. 281. — A shore- 
bug, Saida sp. (Six 
times natural size.) 
good hiding-places. 
