INCLUDING THE LAND BUGS, WATER BUGS, PLANT BUGS, SKATERS, LANTERN
FLIES, FROG HOPPERS, APHIDES, AND THEIR ALLIES.
[Illustration: Fig. 78.--Zelus Quadrispinosus.]
The _Hempitera_ are _Haustellate_ insects; they have four wings, which
are membranous and naked. Their metamorphosis is incomplete. The order
is a very extensive one. The insects, however, are mostly found in
the tropical parts of the world, from whence nearly twenty thousand
species have been described. In the British Isles their number reaches
nearly a thousand.
The study of the _Hemiptera_ has hitherto been sadly neglected, owing
to the great majority of them being very small species.
[Illustration: Fig. 79.--Macrocheraia Grandis.]
They include the Plant Bugs, Sand Bugs, Water Bugs, Cuckoo Spits,
Froghoppers, Plant Lice, and many other familiar forms. The three great
divisions into which they are divided are treated by many entomologists
as distinct orders. The following will show under each heading the
principal distinguishing character of each group or sub-order as we
shall designate them.
_Sub-Order 1, Heteroptera._--Fore wings of a parchment like
consistency.
_Sub-Order 2, Homoptera._--Fore wings membranous and naked, similar to
the hind ones.
_Sub-Order 3, Anaplura._--Wingless; no metamorphosis.
The _Heteroptera_ are regarded as the highest of the three groups,
followed by the _Homoptera_, while the _Anoplura_ constitute a
somewhat aberrant series, and are somewhat in the same position as the
fleas (_Aphaniptera_) are to the true _Diptera_.