Great Hike; or, The Pride of the Khaki Troop
Page 27
HEMIPTERA
includes plant-lice, scale insects and bugs proper. One entomologistsays: "If anything were to exterminate the destroyers of hemiptera, we,ourselves, would probably be starved in the course of a few months," soharmful are they to vegetation. One of the best-known insects of thisorder is the cicada or harvestfly, popularly but wrongly called the"locust," the term "locust" belonging rightfully to the long-hornedgrasshoppers. The body of the cicada is large with a blunt head. At theend of July and early in August its song may be heard in the treetops.
The queer-shaped treehoppers also belong to this order. When they areresting upon a twig, it is difficult, except upon close examination, todistinguish them from a thorn or a natural protuberance of the wood.
The Spittle Insects. After hatching from the egg the young insects livein little frothy masses like spittle on the stems of plants and grasses.
Scale Insects. Many of the members of this family are very injurious tofruit trees and other trees. They feed upon the sap.
The Oyster-shell Bark Louse is found particularly upon apple and peartrees.
SCALE INSECTS.]
Plant Lice. These insects prey upon cultivated plants. Huxley computedthat the uninterrupted breeding of ten generations of plant lice fromthe single insect would produce a bulk equal to the population of theChinese Empire, 500,000,000 of human beings. We have already spoken ofthe relations between ants and plant lice; they are often called "AntCows" because of the ant's habit of milking them for the juices whichthey exhume.
THE TRUE BUGS.
The "Water Boatmen" may be found swimming on the surface of water. Theyoften go below the surface, carrying with them a bubble of air which isheld by the hairs of their body. They hibernate in the mud at the bottomof the water. The eggs of these insects are made into cakes and areeaten by the Indians.
Another family of water bugs are properly called the "back swimmers"because of their habit of swimming on their backs. They prey upon otherwater insects and even fish. They can sting with their beak.
TOAD BUGS.
They have a short, wide body, protruding eyes and toad-like color. Theyare found in damp places under the banks of ponds and streams.
The Water Striders are the long-legged insects which run over thesurface of the water with such speed that it is difficult to catch them.
The Cannibal Bugs, the Pirate Bugs, are preying insects which feed uponother insects whose blood they suck. A species of this insect wasespecially abundant in the Eastern States in 1898. Their bites andblood-sucking habits gave cause to the "kissing-bug" scare to which thenewspapers gave great publicity.
THE AMBUSH BUGS
is the name which Professor Comstock has given to insects frequentingyellow flowers, with which its color agrees and hides it from otherinsects visiting the flowers.
THE SQUASH BUG
is the enemy of vegetables of the pumpkin family and has a distinctlydisagreeable odor.
THE STINK BUGS
are small flat bugs which, like the Squash Bug, have a bad odor. One ofthis family is still called, in Georgia, "The Abe Lincoln" bug, and inTexas, "The Third Party" bug.
THE CINCH BUGS.
This is a bug that makes a specialty of corn and grasses as a diet.