Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/643

 HEMIPTERA 629 pointed, ears short, hind limbs stout, and tail long. It is a native of the East Indies, is about Homigale Hnrdwickii. the size of the ichneumon, and feeds on eggs and small birds and mammals. HEMIPTERA, an order of insects, including what are generally called bugs, harvest flies, tree hoppers, plant lice, &c. They are sucking insects, having neither mandibles nor maxillae proper, but a horny beak, curved along the breast when not in use, containing in its groove delicate sharp bristles by which their punctures are made. They have four wings, of which the upper are generally thick at the base and ^mbranous at the ends, being as it were half elytra and half wings, whence the name of the order (from qfiiavg, half, and Trrepdv, wing) ; in a few all the wings are membranous, and some are wingless, as the bedbug. The eyes are large, the antennae generally small, and the tarsi in most three-jointed. They undergo a partial transformation, the larvae and pupae re- sembling the adults except in the absence of wings and the smaller size; in all the stages they live in the same way, and in all are equally active. The bugs or true hemiptera (K. Jie- teroptera) have the semi-opaque wing covers laid horizontally on the top of the back, cross- ing each other obliquely at the end ; their wings are horizontal and not plaited ; the beak issues from the fore part of the head, and is bent abruptly backward beneath the breast. English entomologists have separated the har- vest flies, tree hoppers, plant lice, &c., under the name of H. homoptera, because the wing covers are of the same texture throughout, either transparent or opaque; they do not cross each other, are not horizontal, but with the wings are more or less inclined at the sides of the body ; the beak issues from the under side of the head ; the insects of this division live on vegetable juices, while those of the eding live also upon animal fluids. In the first division, the family geocorisce (Latr.), or earth bugs, have the antennae exposed and longer than the head ; most are terrestrial, but some live on the surface of water ; many emit a disagreeable odor. The genus pentatoma (Oliv.), or wood bugs, occur chiefly in warm countries, where they attain a considerable size, and are marked with brilliant colors; they live on vegetable juices, and sometimes on those of other insects ; they exhale a disagree- able odor, and adhere to whatever they touch ; De Geer relates that the young of the P. gri- seum (Linn.) in troops of 30 or 40 follow their mother on trees as chickens follow a hen. In the genus corem (Fab.) the head is generally triangular, sunk without apparent neck into the thorax ; the eyes small but prominent ; the legs long and slender ; they feed both on vege- table and animal juices, exhale a strong odor, and present often strange forms and spiny armature. Here belongs the well known squash bug (0. tristis, De Geer), which emits a power- ful odor when handled. In the genus lygcew (Fab.) belong the chinch bugs, so destructive in the fields of corn and wheat at the south and west; the white-winged species (L. leu- copterus, Say) is provided with wings, and is about -/$ of an inch long ; the general color is black, with white wing covers margined with black, and reddish yellow legs, beak, and hinder edge of thorax ; the young and wing- less ones are bright red. Small plant bugs of the genus pJiytocoris are very destructive in flower and vegetable gardens ; one species in particular enters into the long list which have been erroneously supposed to produce the po- tato rot. The genus syrtis (Fab.) have a sin- gle claw on the anterior feet, with which they seize flies and other insects; the "tiger" so destructive to pear trees in Europe belongs to the genus tingis (Fab.) ; the bedbug (cimex lectularius) has been described under EPIZOA ; a species of reduvivs is destructive to the cot- ton crop, staining the balls red, and causing them to fall prematurely ; hydrometra and some allied species run upon the surface of water, and have been found in considerable numbers in mid ocean in the tropics. In the family hydrocorism, or water bugs, belongs the genus nepa (Linn), commonly called water scorpions, from having the anterior legs in the form of hooked nippers ; they prey upon other insects, and are very voracious ; in some tribes the posterior legs are much ciliated, resem- bling oars, enabling them to swim with great swiftness, and often on their backs. In the homopterous division, the three principal tribes are the cicadadm, already described under HAR- VEST FLY ; aphidida, or plant lice, noticed under APHIS ; and the coccidce, or bark lice, described under COCHINEAL. In some of the cicadadai, according to Dufour, the stomach or chylific ventricle is remarkably long, with many convo- lutions of an intestine-like tube ascending and reopening into its cavity a remarkable physi- ological fact. The lantern fly (fulgora}, said to give forth a light from the end of its pro- longed snout, has been alluded to under FIRE- FLY. The tree hoppers (membracis, Fab.)