near Brisbane, has been recently described by Dr. Speiser: it is a
larger species of a more reddish brown colour. A very fine louse fly,
also taken in Southern Queensland upon a white hawk, measures nearly ¾
of an inch to the tip of the folded wings, and has been identified by
the same gentleman as _Ornithoctona nigricans_, described originally
by Leach. Among the few other species described from Australia is one
found on our pretty little emu wren, which was described by Schiner
in the “Zoology of the Voyage of the Novara 1850” under the name of
_Ornithomyia stipituri_. A number of our native birds act as hosts
for these curious flies; the fruit pigeons, swallows, fly-catchers,
and others are known to have them; and when they are systematically
collected our list will probably be a large one.
The NYCTERIBIIDAE are another typical family of louse-flies found
upon different bats, which are very small in comparison with the
true louse-flies: they are always wingless, and have a world-wide
distribution. They are reddish brown creatures covered with stout
spines; the head is buried in the thorax; and the legs, very long and
slender, terminate in immense pincer-shaped claws. Nearly all our
bats are more or less infested with these “spider flies,” and several
species have been described. Rainbow has recently described one under
the name of _Nycteribia pteropus_ from a flying fox taken at Batavia
River, N. Australia (Records Australian Museum 1904).
Family 24. Fleas.
PULICIDAE.
The classification of the fleas has always been a matter of doubt;
modern entomologists usually place them at the end of the Diptera,
considering them a group of degraded flies that from their parasitic
habits have become wingless, and have developed wonderful jumping
powers; other specialists who have devoted much attention to the
question consider them as worthy to rank in an Order, and follow
Latreille, who called them SIPHONAPTERA; other writers, like
Taschenberg, who wrote his Monograph entitled “Die Flöhe” in 1880,
formed them into distinct families. The latest revision of the family
is Baker’s “Revision of American Siphonaptera, &c.” (Smithsonian
Institute 1904); in this he gives a list of the described species,
placing them in five families, and records a total of 134 species from
all parts of the world.
Messrs. Jordan and Rothschild in a “Revision of the Sarcopsyllidae”
(University of Liverpool 1906) criticise Baker’s classification,
and reduce the families to four, extending the limits of the Family
SARCOPSYLLIDAE, and adding seven new species.
The flea differs from most other insects in having the whole
wedge-shaped body vertically flattened. It is admirably adapted for
crawling through hair or feathers, and the large stout spiny legs are
well suited for jumping. The head, indistinctly separated from the
body, is short, furnished with jointed antennae situated above but
behind the eyes; the mouth is produced into a stout pointed proboscis
with which it punctures the skin and sucks up the blood of its host.
They are all of a more or less reddish brown tint, clothed with
scattered stout bristles, and the abdomen is rounded at the apex; the
legs are furnished with a pair of tarsal claws. The fact that fleas are
capable of spreading the germs of plague and even leprosy has caused
a great deal of attention to be devoted to this group, and they have
during the last few years been sought for and collected from all parts
of the world.
Two species are common in the house in Australia, of which the
“domestic flea,” _Pulex irritans_, is too well known to need much
description. They deposit their eggs, which are tiny ribbed crystalline
spheres (very beautiful objects under the microscope) in the dry dust
in cracks and crannies in the floor, or in the corners of badly-swept
rooms. From these eggs hatch out slender, legless, transparent grubs
with several short bristles on the anal extremity; these grubs feed
upon the dust and, when full grown, spin a silken tube in which they
pupate buried in the dust.
_P. serraticeps_ is known as the dog and cat flea, though it is not
uncommon at times in the house where animals are running about; but
though it sometimes comes on man, it is an accidental infestation, and
it gets away to its natural host as soon as it can escape. It can be
easily distinguished from the common house flea by its more elongate
form, and by the black comb-like spines fringing the back of the head
and the first thoracic segment, which are absent in the former.
The Rat and Mouse Flea, _P. fasciatus_, is a paler coloured, more
slender flea, also with a very extended range over the world. It is
notorious as the species that, when living upon plague-infested rats,
can transmit bubonic plague to man.
Denny (Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. XII. 1843) has described another
species, which he placed in this Genus, obtained from Tasmania and
found upon the _Echidna_, and which he has called _Pulex echidnae_.
About a dozen indigenous species have been recorded from Australia.
The Genus _Echidnophaga_ was created by Olliff (Pro. Linn. Soc. N.S.W.
1886) to contain a species he described under the name of _Echidnophaga
ambulans_; it is remarkable for its very long proboscis, and short
legs which render it unable to jump. Large numbers of this flea were
found upon a Porcupine Ant Eater (_Echidna hystrix_) in the Australian
Museum. Messrs. Jordan and Rothschild in the Revision previously
noticed place 8 species in Olliff’s Genus, adding two more to the
Australian fauna, _E. macronychia_ from West Australia found upon a
small marsupial (_Bettongia lesueuri_), and _E. liopus_ also from
West Australia on _Echidna aculeata_, at the same time recording the
last-named species upon rats at Agra, India. They give a number of
additional hosts of _E. ambulans_, namely: the opossum, several other
marsupials, and the brown snake; and they extend its range from Sydney
to West Australia.
The Chicken Flea, _E. gallinaceus_, which they place in this Genus
(originally described by Westwood under the generic name _Sarcopsylla_)
though it has not been recorded from Australia has a range from
America, Africa, and Russia to Fiji; it infests a great number of both
wild and domestic animals and birds.
Skuse (Annals of the Australian Museum 1893) described a very curious
flea, found in the pouch of a native cat (_Dasyurus_) which he called
_Stephanocircus dasyuri_. I have since had the typical legless larvae,
found also in the marsupial pouch of the same animal, and it is also
common upon the bandicoot in Queensland. This flea has an elongate
body, with the front of the head flattened and fringed with fine
spines; it has no eyes.
Skuse is said to have described two species belonging to different
genera as the sexes of his flea; and Rainbow in the same journal
(Records Aust. Mus. 1905) proposes the name of _Ceratophyllus
rothschildi_ for the second. Rothschild has described two other species
in this genus, _C. hilli_ from N.S. Wales on the native cat, and a
second, _C. woodwardi_, from W. Australia.
[Illustration: =Fig. 153.=--_Stephanocircus
dasyuri_ (Skuse).
Flea of the “Native-cat” and “Bandicoot.”
(Original photo. G. Turner.)]
Rothschild also describes two other species which he places in Skuse’s
Genus _Stephanocircus_, namely _S. thomasi_ (Nov. Zool. X. 1903) from
Barrow Island N.W. Australia, and _S. simsoni_ (Entomologists’ Month.
Magazine XVI. 1905), which comes from Tasmania, taken upon a native
cat, _Dasyurus maculatus_. In the Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine
1906 Rothschild forms a new Genus _Pygiopsylla_ for a large Tasmanian
flea taken on a native rat which he calls _Pygiopsylla colossus_. He
makes _Ceratophyllus hilli_ the type of this new genus, in which he
also places three other Australian species originally described in the
latter genus, namely: _C. woodwardi_, _rothschildi_, and _echidnae_, in
the new one.
Order VIII.--HEMIPTERA.
Bugs, Frog-hoppers, Scale Insects, &c.
The structure of the mouth is the distinctive character of the insects
of this great Order. Instead of the biting jaws (or sucking mouth)
of many other insects previously described it is produced into a
slender pointed tube of complicated structure, which usually lies
along the under-surface of the head and thorax. This beak, called the
rostrum, consists of a jointed sheath (labium) enclosing hair-like
setae (mandibles and maxillae). When the insect feeds the sharp tip
is pressed into its food, and the sap or juice sucked up, not by the
proboscis-like sheath, but by the delicate enclosed setae. Kirkaldy
doubts if the sheath “ever even penetrates the tissues, either
vegetable or animal, unless these be already lacerated by the setae”;
and it is often used only as a fulcrum to steady their operations.
In the outward appearance (often a deceptive character in
classification) the members of this group are very dissimilar; probably
no two insects could be more unlike than the typical plant bug and the
ordinary scale insect.
They all undergo an incomplete metamorphosis, often changing their
colours and even shape in the various moults before they are fully
developed. The eggs of those living upon plants are generally deposited
in clusters, and these are often very beautiful crystal spheres with
stellate caps upon the summits. In other groups the eggs are buried
in the tissue of the food plant or covered with woolly or sticky
secretions.
They take the name Hemiptera from the structure of the fore wing,
one half of which is, in the typical bugs, horny and the rest
semitransparent.
The families of the plant and water bugs are much more closely related
to each other than to the frog-hoppers, cicades and scale insects; and
the whole Order has been separated into groups or sub-orders, viz.,
HETEROPTERA; HOMOPTERA; ANOPLURA; MALLOPHAGA.
Sub-order I. HETEROPTERA.
Bugs.
This sub-division contains all the plant, carnivorous, and water bugs,
which vary in size and shape from the tiny little leaf-infesting
forms to the great “fish-killer,” _Belostoma indicum_, found in our
water-holes.
They are usually furnished with two pairs of wings. The basal portion
of the front pair is horny and opaque, and the apical half more or less
transparent; this pair covers the larger hind pair, which, well adapted
for flight, are folded up beneath when at rest. The members of some
groups however are apterous.
Many are furnished with glands on the body secreting an offensive,
buggy-smelling fluid, which they discharge when handled or disturbed.
Some species are serious pests to plant life, and swarm in countless
thousands over vegetation, sucking up the sap and causing it to wither
and die in consequence, as in the case of the Chinch Bug of North
America upon wheat, and the Rutherglen Bug in Australia among field
crops. Others are predaceous and very useful, destroying great numbers
of leaf-eating grubs and caterpillars.
These insects are well represented in Australia, and many of the larger
and more showy ones were collected and described at a very early
date, and their descriptions are scattered through the pages of many
scientific journals. Numbers of our species have been described by
Westwood (Hope Catal. 1837); Dallas (List Hemip. 1851); Walker (Catal.
Heter. Brit. Museum 1867); Distant (Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1886,
etc.); Kirkaldy (The Entomologist); and others in English journals;
while among the Continental writers Messrs. Stal, Bergroth, Montandon,
Horvath, and Reuter have been the chief workers.
In 1893 Messrs. Lethierry and Severin commenced a “Catalogue of the
Described Heteroptera of the World”; three parts were published, but,
probably owing to the death of Lethierry, it was never completed, part
three closing with the ANTHOCORIDAE, and most of the aquatic groups are
not listed. Dr. Mayr has in his “Monograph of the Belostomidae 1871”
noted our species.
[Illustration: Plate XXXI.--HEMIPTERA.
Family PENTATOMIDAE.
1. _Biprorulas bibax_ (Bredden).
3. _Peltophora pedicellata_ (Kirby).
4. _Chaerocorus paganus_ (Fabr.).
7. _Plautia affinis_ (Dallas).
8. _Cuspicona simplex_ (Walk.).
10. _Dindymus versicolor_ (Herr. Sch.).
11. _Tectocoris lineola_ (Fabr.).
13. _Oncoscelis sulciventris_ (Stal.).
Family PYRRHOCORIDAE.
2. _Dysdercus sidae_ (Montrz.).
Family COREIDAE.
5. _Mictis profana_ (Fabr.).
Family LYGAEIDAE.
6. _Oxycarenus luctuosus_ (Mont.).
12. _Oncopeltus quadriguttatus_ (Fabr.).
15. _Lygaeus hospes_ (Fabr.).
Family REDUVIIDAE.
9. _Ptilocnemus femoralis_ (Horvath).
Family TINGIDAE.
14. _Froggattia olivina_ (Horvath).]
[Illustration: _Plate XXXI.--HEMIPTERA._]
The Heteroptera have been divided into about twenty families, chiefly
defined by the structure of the head and wings; these families are
again subdivided into a great number of sub-families, many of the more
important being represented in Australia.
Family 1. Shield Bugs.
PENTATOMIDAE.
This group comprises many of our largest and most brilliantly marked
tropical plant bugs, distinguished from all those of other families
by the remarkable size of the scutellum which frequently covers the
two pairs of wings and dorsal surface of the abdomen. The majority of
these insects fly well. The head is usually furnished with 5-jointed
antennae (though some are restricted to four joints), and two ocelli.
It is one of the largest groups, and has been divided into fourteen
sub-families. There are over 4,000 species in the family, and it is
well represented in Australia. This family is sometimes known under the
name SCUTELLERIDAE.
The Cherry Bug, _Peltophora pedicillata_, is a bright metallic green
bug mottled with black spots on the back; the greater part of the under
surface, edges of the thorax, and two blotches at the base of the
scutellum are bright coral red: it measures ½ an inch in length and is
broad in proportion. It has a range from New South Wales (where it is
often found on strong-scented flowering shrubs and has been recorded as
a cherry pest) to N. Queensland, where it is very abundant on the wild
fig trees. _Tectocoris lineola_ is so variable in size and colouration
that it has been described under eight varietal names and has an
extended range from the north of N.S. Wales through Queensland to New
Caledonia and China. It has a broad, elongate, convex body of a bright
orange colour edged on the margins of the body with metallic green; the
dorsal surface is covered with curious green or blue patches reminding
one of Chinese letters; sometimes these markings are almost absent,
in others so confluent that it is more blue than red. Donovan named
our variety _T. banksi_, after Sir Joseph Banks, who first obtained
specimens from Australia. _Chaerocoris paganus_ is under ½ an inch in
length, and of an oval, beetle-like form; its general colour is red
with dull metallic green forming blotches on the back, head, and sides
of the thorax. It is very common at times crawling about on the rocks
and ground about Sydney. _C. similis_ is a smaller darker form, only
taken about Gunnedah, N.S.W., but it probably has a wider range.
_Philia basalis_ is one of the common fruit bugs of N. Queensland. It
is slightly over ½ an inch in length, with elongate convex scutellum,
and a uniform rich metallic green tint, with a bright coral-red spot
behind the head and two similar ones at the base of the scutellum; the
sides of the abdomen are bright red on the under surface. _P. senator_
is a smaller, more variable form, with the coral-red markings not so
distinct. _Philia regia_, about the same size as the last species, is
of a rich coppery-red tint, with the hind portion of the back bright
yellow, and the ventral surface and legs bright green and yellow. Both
these species and _P. senator_ are found along the Queensland coast.
The Genus _Calliphara_ contains a number of large bugs, elongate but
broadly rounded in front, with the scutellum forming a complete convex
shield over the back; 26 species are described ranging from China
through the Malay Peninsula to Queensland. _Calliphara imperialis_
measures over ¾ of an inch in length, and has the whole of the dorsal
surface, except the tip of the abdomen, bright shining red; the
under surface, legs, and tip of abdomen are dark metallic green. _C.
billiardierei_, about the same size, has the back and the under surface
of the abdomen (except the tip) red; the head, thorax, legs and tip
of abdomen deep metallic green with dull purple tints. _C. cruenta_
is a much smaller species, the thorax and basal half of the back red,
shading into purple toward the tip. _C. nobilis_ has the head and
thorax dark, with the dull red back spotted with black. All our species
of this genus are found in the tropical scrubs of N. Queensland.
_Cantao parentum_ measures over an inch in length, and is more elongate
in form; it is of a uniform dull red tint, with the whole of the dorsal
surface marked with small irregular black dots; the legs and under
surface are black. It ranges along the Queensland coast. It has been
reported to have attacked cherries in Southern Queensland. The Genus
_Testrica_ contains several little brown bugs, short and broad, with
the front of the thorax more or less produced into a spine, and the
extremity of the abdomen broadly rounded. _Testrica bubala_ is not more
than ⅙ of an inch in length, with the shoulders sharply spined; it is
found upon the foliage of small gum trees.
The sub-family CYDINAE contains a number of curious little black
shining bugs that live on the ground and are often found hiding under
stones. They are quick and active in their habits, and might easily be
mistaken for small black beetles. _Geobia australis_, under ¼ of an
inch in length, is of a uniform pitch-black colour, with the exposed
tips of the elytra greyish-brown; it has spiny legs; the head is
clothed with scattered hairs forming a fringe. _Adrissa_ atra is a much
larger black bug; it has pitch-coloured elytra with brown tips. This
common species is found about Sydney under stones and rubbish.
In the PENTATOMINAE we have a large number of species. They are
broadest across the base of the thorax, which is sometimes slightly
angulate; the scutellum is large and angular, occupying the centre
of the back but not covering the whole of the wing covers. _Notius
depressus_ measures over ½ an inch in length, and is broad in
proportion; the general colour is deep blue to purple, the sides of the
head and thorax and ventral surface marked with yellow. It ranges from
Tasmania to N.S. Wales.
_Eumecopus australasiae_ has a wide range, and is often found in wattle
scrub resting on tree-trunks. It measures about an inch in length, is
a very active insect, and flies readily when disturbed. Its colour is
dull brown, mottled with small dull yellow spots; these form several
short parallel rows on the pointed head, and there is a distinct yellow
spot at the apex of the scutellum.
The Genus _Poecilometis_ contains 14 species peculiar to Australia.
They are of the same general form as the last group, are found in
similar localities, and are all of a more or less reddish-brown tint.
_Poecilometis histricus_, about ¾ of an inch in length, is of a light
brown colour with ochreous markings. _P. gravis_, found upon wattle
scrub, is smaller than the last species and is of a more reddish-brown
tint. _P. strigatus_, about ½ an inch in length, is of a similar
brownish colour.
_Dictyotus plebejus_ is one of our commonest little dull brown bugs; is
about ¼ of an inch in length and nearly as broad as long. It has a wide
range over Eastern Australia, and is found, often in numbers, under
stones, dry cowdung, or dead logs. The genus is peculiar to Australia,
and contains 18 described species.
_Commius elegans_ is common on the foliage of the native cherry about
Mittagong, N.S.W.; it is just under ½ an inch in length; is of a
general blue black colour with the thorax and under surface yellow
blotched with black; the sides and apex of the scutellum are edged
with yellow; and a narrower transverse band of dull white crosses the
back just below the tip of the scutellum. It has a wide range over
Australia, and was described by Donovan in 1805. _Plautia nigripennis_
is a much smaller plant bug, with the upper surface green, and the
sides and tips of the elytra reddish brown; it ranges up the Queensland
coast from the Tweed River, N.S. Wales. _P. affinis_ is a pretty little
green insect which feeds on rice and other plants in the northern
district of N.S.W. It measures about ⅓ of an inch in length.
The members of the Genus _Cuspicona_ range from India to Australia and
New Caledonia; eight species are described from Australia. _Cuspicona
simplex_ is a finely rugose and green coloured bug about ⅓ of an inch
in length, with the sides of the thorax produced into blunt spines,
and the elytra broadly rounded to the tip. It infests many field crops
and has been reported as doing serious damage to growing potatoes.
_C. thoracica_ is a small green species, with the thorax produced
into a stout spine on each side. The head and a broad band across the
thorax are reddish brown; the margins of the thorax and the centre
of the scutellum are marked with bright yellow. It is common in the
eastern coastal districts, and has been found feeding on ground crops
about Gosford, N.S.W. _C. forticornis_ is a larger green species with
the thoracic spines red, and the dorsal surface thickly and finely
punctured. It is common in the northern scrubs of N.S. Wales.
The ASOPINAE contains two well known species of Australian bugs:
_Cermatulus nasalis_ is common on the Richmond and Tweed Rivers,
N.S.W. It measures slightly over ½ an inch in length, and has a
somewhat rounded form, with a small projecting head. Specimens vary
from an olive brown to almost black colour, and are mottled with
deep red; the upper surface is deeply and closely punctured, and the
tips of the elytra are metallic bronze. The Vine-moth Bug, _Oechalia
schellembergi_, is one of our most interesting species from an economic
point of view because it preys upon the caterpillar of the vine moth
(_Phalaenides glycine_), several species of cut-worm, and the larvae of
the fig-leaf beetle (_Galeruca semipullata_). They lay their rounded
glassy eggs in patches of about a dozen upon the foliage, and the
freshly emerged bug is dark brown, and flattened in form. The adult bug
varies very much in size; the largest is about ½ an inch in length;
it is very finely punctured, and is of a general light reddish brown
colour mottled with yellow; the sides of the thorax are stoutly spined,
and the abdomen is rather tapering toward the tip. It has a wide range
over Australia, and is recorded from New Zealand.
The Spined Orange Bug, _Biprorulus bibax_, is a well known orange pest
about Moree and the Tweed and Richmond Rivers, N.S.W. It is a handsome
bright green bug when alive, but after death usually changes to dull
yellow; it measures nearly an inch in length and ¾ of an inch across
from tip to tip of the large thoracic spines; the front of the thorax
between these stout spines is somewhat depressed; the abdomen is broad
and rounded, and the dorsal surface finely punctured.