Jan. 26, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
1 35 
| fL _ 
fact that many forest schools have been estab¬ 
lished, shines from .the prospect that Congress 
will give $2,000,000 to be spent on permanent 
fire lines, and with that sum of money will 
at last double the efficiency of our present 
force. When that comes about it will be al¬ 
together the most hopeful thing that has hap¬ 
pened to us. 
Familiar Insects. 
VII.—The True Bugs. 
While the word “bug” has been in common 
English use for a long time as applying to an 
insect of almost any kind, the entomologists re¬ 
strict the word to a certain group of insects 
which they call Hemiptera or half-winged in¬ 
sects. The mouth parts of the members of this 
order are formed for sucking, and the transfor¬ 
mations are incomplete, their life-changes re¬ 
sembling those of the grasshoppers rather than 
those of the butterflies and moths. An immense 
number of noxious insects are included in this 
group, some of the more notorious being the 
squash-bug, the bedbug, the chinch-bug, the var¬ 
ious kinds of plant-lice and bark-lice, the period¬ 
ical cicadas and many other equally injurious* 
pests. 
A Bug’s Life History. 
The life history of these true bugs may be il¬ 
lustrated by the common squash-bug, a creature 
too well known to most owners of gardens. This 
pest appears in the garden in early summer, and 
the female soon begins depositing her eggs upon 
the leaves. These eggs are small rounded ob¬ 
jects, more or less triangular in their general 
outline. In from six to fifteen days they hatch 
into tiny bugs which are to grow into the form 
and size of the parents. 
The newly hatched squash-bug is more bril¬ 
liantly colored than at any other time during its 
life, and those colors make it very conspicuous 
against the green background of the leaves. The 
color of the abdomen and the-posterior portion 
of the thorax is light green; that of the legs and 
“feelers”’or antennae a beautiful crimson; that 
of the head and anterior portion of the thorax 
a lighter crimson, while the margins of the eyes 
are darker. This beauty, however, is but short¬ 
lived; at 'the end of an hour the crimson is 
noticeably darker, and in a few hours it changes 
to a jet black. 
The young squash-bugs soon begin their attack 
: upon the plant by inserting their tiny beaks in 
the succulent tissues of the leaves. In their gen¬ 
eral habits they resemble the adults. After about 
three days of this feeding, the abdomen becomes 
noticeably swollen and the color somewhat 
lighter. This is an indication that the period of 
moultihg'has arrived. 
The young bugs in these early stages are often 
called nymphs. They now assume a quiet, sta¬ 
tionary attitude. The process of moulting begins 
by the splitting of the skin lengthwise along the 
middle of the upper surface of the body, the split 
extending along the thorax and the front end 
of the abdomen. The time required to complete 
this operation varies greatly, but generally is not 
longer than an hour or two. 
A few hours after the first moult, when the 
bugs, have taken on their normal colors, they are 
considerably lighter than they were before. The 
length is now about one-ninth of an inch. They 
are also more alert, moving about more rapidly. 
They feed again upon the sap of the leaves for 
about nine days, when they undergo their sec¬ 
ond moult. After this has taken place, so that 
the nymph is in the third of its younger stages, 
the body is larger and flatter, with the margins 
more sharply defined and the color somewhat 
darker than in the second stage. The length is 
now about one-eighth of an inch. 
The most notable difference taken on by the 
insect in the fourth stage, which is entered upon 
by the third moult, which takes place about eight 
days after the second moult, is the noticeable 
development of the wing-pads. These now be¬ 
come much more conspicuous than before. After 
living in this stage for about seven days the in- 
| sect moults for the fourth time, entering upon 
its fifth stage. It is now quite different in ap¬ 
pearance and is easily recognized as a full grown 
nymph. The wing-pads are greatly enlarged, 
while the thorax is widened and lengthened. The 
body is more rectangular, and in general becomes 
so similar to the mature bug that at a little dis¬ 
tance it may readily be mistaken for the latter. 
It is now one-third of an inch long. The full 
grown- nymph lives in this fifth stage about nine 
days before the final moult by which it matures 
into the adult squash-bug. 
The Giant Water Bugs. 
The largest members of the order Hemiptera in 
the United States are the giant water-bugs, some¬ 
times called electric light bugs. These form a 
family of peculiar creatures, each armed with a 
pair of immense front legs fitted for grasping 
and clasping their victims, and a piercing dagger¬ 
like beak fitted both for striking the prey and 
sucking its juices. It is also provided with 
poison glands which make more sure the effect 
of every thrust. 
One of the largest members of this family is 
illustrated in the accompanying picture. It is 
brown in color, with leathery wings overlapping 
each other on its back, thick legs, along the sides 
of which are fringes for swimming, and a flat 
boat-shaped body which offers little resistance to 
BLACK SQUASH BUG GIANT WATER-BUG 
(adult). (adult). 
the water. The eggs of this insect are deposited 
on pieces of wood or reeds along the margins 
of ponds. They are laid in clusters of from forty 
to sixty or more eggs in each. The eggs theun 
selves are about one-fifth of an inch long, oblong 
ovate in form, with the general color brown 
spotted with black and a whitish crescent-shaped 
mark near the top. The giant water-bugs are 
typical examples of the true bugs. ‘They belong 
to the sub-order called by naturalists Heteroptera, 
the members of which are characterized by hav¬ 
ing the front pair of wings thickened at the base 
and membranous at the tip. 
The Chinch Bugs. 
The most destructive single species of the true 
bugs, so far as American agriculture is con¬ 
cerned, is doubtless the chinch-bug. This notor¬ 
ious pest has destroyed millions of dollars worth 
of croos in the corn and wheat fields of the 
middle west. The adult chinch-bug is a small 
blackish insect, slightly less than one-fifth of an 
inch long, with the legs dark yellow and their 
tips black. The young do not differ in general 
form from the adults. When first hatched they 
are pale yellow, but they soon become red; this 
continues to be the prevailing color until the 
pupa or last nymph stage is reached. The insect 
is then grayish or brownish black. The eggs are 
quite small, being about 0.03 inch in length, and 
amber colored. Short-winged varieties of the 
adult chinch-bugs are sometimes found. 
The Aphides or Plant Lice. 
From the point of view of the economist the 
aphides or plant-lice form one of the most im¬ 
portant families of the true bugs. There are a 
great many species of these little pests, of which 
the “green-fly” of house plants is a familiar 
example. They infest nearly all kinds of green 
plants, sucking the sap through their pointed 
beaks, and often causing the destruction of valu¬ 
able crops. 
In briefest summary the normal life history of 
these aphides is as follows: In the spring there 
hatches from an egg, deposited the previous 
autumn, a little aphid that sucks the sap of its 
food plant for a number of days—sometimes a 
fortnight—before it becomes full grown. Dur¬ 
ing this period of growth it moults or sheds its 
skin a number of times to provide for its rapidly 
increasing size. This insect is sometimes called 
the stem-mother; she is always wingless. Soon 
after reaching maturity she begins to give birth 
to living young, continuing the process for some 
time. These young resemble the stem-mother in 
general appearance, being of course much smaller. 
Each soon begins sucking the sap on her own 
account, and in about two weeks becomes mature. 
It then begins bringing other aphides into the 
world; these soon mature and give birth to a 
third generation. 
All of these early broods give birth to young 
without the presence of any males. Many of 
them are winged, but the majority are wingless. 
This method of reproduction is continued 
throughout the warm months, but on the ap¬ 
proach of cold weather a true sexual generation 
is produced, the males of which may be either 
winged or wingless, while the females are always 
wingless. The latter deposit the true eggs, fre¬ 
quently on the bark of trees. These eggs pass 
through the winter, and in spring hatch into 
stem-mothers which renew the yearly cycle of 
existence. 
The Ants and the Aphides. 
The relations of aphides and ants has long 
been a matter of popular wonder, the aphides 
being commonly called the cows of the ants. 
And it may well excite unusual interest, for 
this is one of the most remarkable cases of 
mutual adaptation to be found in the world of 
living things. It' is well established that the 
ants tend the plant-lice for the sake of the liquid 
execretions which serve the ants for food. On 
the whole the most wonderful of these adapta¬ 
tions, which has been carefully studied, seems 
to be that of the yellow ant and the corn root 
aphis, a species destructive ' to Indian corn in 
many of the Middle States. The eggs are found 
in the soil in winter in the nests of the ants. 
In early spring they hatch into small greenish 
lice which are transferred by the ants to the 
roots of certain grasses, where they are care¬ 
fully tended by the ants. In about two weeks 
the aphides become full grown and begin giving 
birth to living young. In the meanwhile the 
ground has probably been plowed and some 
crop sowed. In case the crop is corn the ants 
transfer their little proteges to the corn roots, 
but if it is oats or wheat they may continue to 
rear them upon the grasses. The young from 
these become adult in about a fortnight, some 
of them being winged and others wingless. The 
winged ones fly to other hills of corn in the 
same or neighboring fields, where the ants are 
waiting to receive them and proceed to establish 
colonies. This second generation brings forth 
living young, mostly wingless, and generations 
continue to develop on the corn roots through¬ 
out the summer. In autumn the true sexes are 
produced, and the winter eggs are deposited in 
the mines of the ant colonies. 
There are many other members of this order 
Hemiptera of much interest to mankind. The 
strange periodical cicada, with its long period of 
growth underground, sometimes thirteen and 
sometimes seventeen years, is one of the most 
remarkable of these. The hosts of leaf-hop¬ 
pers and twig-hoppers are also worthy of care¬ 
ful study, and the myriads of true bugs that live 
on or in the water are of fascinating interest. 
In all of them there are marvelous adaptations 
to the conditions of existence, and the study of 
such adaptations forms one of the most impor¬ 
tant lines of biological research. 
Clarence M. Weed. 
