The insects formerly known by the general name of Bugs have been
divided by Latreille into two large families, containing: the one the
_Geocorisæ_,[19] or Land Bugs; the other the _Hydrocorisæ_,[20] or
Water Bugs.
[19] From [Greek: gê], the earth, and [Greek: koris], a bug.
[20] From [Greek: hydôr], water, and [Greek: koris], a bug.
The land bugs consist of a great number of kinds, which, for the
most part, are of little interest. We will only mention here the
_Peniatomidæ_, commonly known as Wood Bugs; the _Lygæi_, Bugs,
properly so called; the _Reduvii_, and the _Hydrometræ_.
The _Pentatomidæ_, which comprise many genera, include the wood bugs
of most authors. They are to be found on plants and trees. They fly
quickly, but only for a short time.
The Ornamented Pentatoma (_Strachia_ [_Pentatoma_] _ornata_), known
as the Red Cabbage Bug, is very commonly found on the cabbage, and
on most of the cruciferous plants. It is variegated with red and
black, and its colours are subject to numerous variations. The Grey
Pentatoma (_Raphigaster griseus_), Fig. 69, is common throughout the
whole of Europe. In autumn these bugs are frequently to be found on
raspberries, to which they impart their disagreeable smell. They are
also to be found in quantities on the mullein, when that plant is in
flower. The upper parts of the head are of a greyish brown, and are
sometimes slightly purple. The coriaceous part of the hemelytra
is of a purple tint, but the membranous part is brown. All these
parts are covered with black spots, which are only to be seen with
a magnifying-glass. The wings are blackish. The under part of the
whole body and the feet are of a light and rather yellowish grey, with
a considerable number of small black spots. The abdomen is black above;
and it is bordered with alternate black and white spots.
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Grey Pentatoma (_Raphigaster griseus_).]
We have repeated here the description given of this bug by the
illustrious Swedish naturalist, De Geer, because our young readers
have most likely met with this insect, or will do so some day when
gathering raspberries.
The Grey Pentatoma, marked with black, yellow, and red, is to be found
throughout the whole of Europe in cultivated fields and gardens,
sometimes also on the trunks of large trees, especially elms. This
species, in common with the greater part of those which compose the
group we are describing, emits a smell when irritated or menaced by
some danger. At other times no odour will be noticed. Let us hear what
M. Léon Dufour says on this subject.
"Seize the Pentatoma with a pair of pincers and plunge it into a glass
of clear water; look through a magnifying-glass, and you will see
innumerable small globules arising from its body, which, bursting on
the surface of the water, exhale that odour which is so disagreeable.
This vapour, which is essentially acrid, if it happens to touch the
eyes, causes a considerable amount of irritation. If one of these
insects is held between the fingers, so as not to stop up the
odoriferous orifices, and to cause this vapour to touch a part of the
skin, a spot, either brown or livid, will ensue on that part, which
lotions, though repeatedly applied, will at first fail to remove, and
which produces in the cutaneous tissue an alteration similar to that
which succeeds the application of mineral acids."
The disagreeable smell exhaled by different species of Pentatoma is
the result of a fluid secreted by a single pear-shaped gland, either
red or yellow, which occupies the centre of the thorax, and which
terminates between the hind legs.
With the _Syromastes_, which are bugs of this same section, the
secretion has, on the contrary, an agreeable smell, which reminds one
of that of apples. Many kinds of Pentatoma are destructive to
agriculture. Others, however, attack the destructive insects, and
ought therefore to be carefully spared. We will mention in this case
the Blue Pentatoma, which kills the _Altica_[21] of the vine.
[21] This species is _Lygænus militaris_.--ED.
There may be observed, at the foot and about the lower part of trees,
or at the base of walls exposed to the mid-day sun, groups of fifty or
sixty small insects pressed close to each other, and often one on the
top of the other, their heads in the direction of a centre point. They
are red, spotted with black. In the neighbourhood of Paris the
children call them "_Suisses_," probably on account of the red on
their bodies, that being the colour of the uniform of the Swiss troops
formerly in the service of France. In Burgundy the children call them
"_petits cochons rouges_." They will be found described in Geoffroy's
"Histoire des Insectes," under the name of the Red Garden Bug. At the
present day they are placed in the genus _Lygæus_.[22] When the bad
weather comes, these little "_Suisses_" take refuge under stones and
the bark of trees to pass the winter. During the whole of that season
they remain in a sort of torpid state. But in the first days of spring
they revive, and resume their ordinary habits. They suck the sap of
vegetables, piercing the capsules of divers kinds of mallows, and
always keeping in the sunshine.
[22] A genus of beetles.
The Bug, popularly so called, or Bed Bug (_Acanthia lectularia_, or
_Cimex lectularius_, Fig. 70), a most disagreeable and stinking
insect, abounds in dirty houses, principally in towns, and above all
in those of warm countries. It lives in beds, in wood-work, and
paper-hangings. There is no crack, however narrow it may be, into
which it is unable to slip. It is nocturnal, shunning the light.
"Nocturnum foetidum animal," says Linnæus. Its body is oval, about
the fifth of an inch in length, flat, soft, of a brown colour, and
covered with little hairs. Its head is provided with two hairy
antennæ, and two round black eyes, and has a short beak, curved
directly under its thorax, and lying in a shallow groove when the
animal is at rest. This beak, composed of three joints, contains four
thin, straight, and sharp hairs. The thorax is dilated at the sides.
The abdomen is very much developed, orbicular, composed of eight
segments, very much depressed, and easily crushed by the fingers. The
hemelytra are rudimentary. It has no membranous wings. The tarsi have
three articulations, of which the last is provided with two strong
hooks.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Bed Bug (_Acanthia lectularia_), magnified.]
[Illustration: Fig. 71.--Egg of Bug, magnified.]
"These animals," says Moquin-Tandon, in his "Zoologie Médicale," "do
not draw up the sanguineous fluid by suction, properly so-called, as
leeches do. The organisation of their buccal apparatus does not allow
of this. The hairs of the beak applied the one against the other
exercise a sort of alternate motion, which draws the blood up into the
oesophagus, very much in the same manner as water rises in a chain
pump. This rising is assisted by the viscous nature of the fluid, and
above all, by the globules it contains." The part of the skin which
the Bug has pierced, producing a painful sensation, is easily
recognised by a little reddish mark, presenting in its centre a dark
spot. Generally a little blister rises on the point pierced, and
sometimes, if the Bug-bites are numerous, these blisters become
confluent, and resemble a sort of eruption. These disgusting insects
lay, towards the month of May, oblong whitish eggs (Fig. 71), having a
small aperture, through which the larva comes out. The larva differs
from the insect in its perfect state, in its colour, which is pale or
yellowish. This insect exists in nearly the whole of Europe, although
it is rare or almost unknown in the northern parts. The towns of
central Europe are the most infested by this parasite, but those of
the north are not completely free from its presence. The Marquis de
Custine assures us that at St. Petersburg he found them numerous. It
is found also in Scotland; is very rare in the south of Europe; and
seldom seen in Italy, where it is, however, replaced by other insects
more dangerous or more annoying.
It has been said that the Bug was brought into Europe from America;
but Aristotle, Pliny, and Dioscorides mention its existence. It is
certain that it was unknown in England till the beginning of the
sixteenth century. A celebrated traveller, a Spanish naturalist,
Azara, has remarked that the Bug does not infest man in his savage
state, but only when congregated together in a state of civilisation,
and in houses, as in Europe. From this he concluded that the Bug was
not created till long after man, when, after many centuries had
elapsed since his appearance on the globe, men formed themselves into
societies, into republics, or little states.
The bug is not a gluttonous insect, always bloodthirsty; on the
contrary, its sobriety is remarkable. It is only after a prolonged
fast that it bites animals; and Audouin has stated that it can live a
year and even two years without food.
From time immemorial a number of different means have been employed
for destroying these insects; but in spite of all, nothing is more
difficult than to get rid of them from wood-work and paper-hangings,
when they have once infested them. In general, strong odours cause
their death. And so, to rid oneself of these disagreeable guests, it
has been recommended to use tobacco smoke, essence of turpentine, the
fumes of sulphur, &c. Mercurial ointment and corrosive sublimate are
also excellent means for their destruction; and for the same purpose
the merits of a plant belonging to the order Cruciferæ, _Lepidium
ruderale_, have been much vaunted; and more recently still, the root
of the Pyrethrum, a species of camomile, reduced to powder, and blown
into the furniture or wood-work. This powder is known and employed at
Paris under the name of "_poudre insecticide_."
There are two other kinds of bugs (_Acanthia_) which attack men. The
one is the _Acanthia ciliata_, which has been found in the houses of
Kazan, and which differs from the bed bug not only in its form, but
also in its habits. It does not live in companies, in the narrow
cracks of furniture, but moves about alone, at a slow pace, over walls
or the counterpanes of beds. Its beak is very long, and its bite is
very painful, and produces obstinate swellings.
The other species is the _Acanthia rotundata_, which is found in the
Island of La Réunion, and attacks men in the same way as does the
European bug. Two species of the same genus live as parasites on
swallows and domestic pigeons. There is another species, which is
peculiar to the bats of our climates.
The _Reduvius personatus_, called also Fly Bug, by Geoffroy, the old
historian of the insects of the environs of Paris, is common enough
in France. It keeps to the houses, and is found especially near ovens
and chimney-pieces. It is about three-quarters of an inch in length,
oblong, flat on its upper side, brownish, has horizontal hemelytra
crossed over each other, and very fully developed wings, which serve
for flight. Its head, narrow, supported by a well-defined neck, is
provided with two composite and two simple eyes. It requires, no
doubt, to see very clearly, as it flies by night. It should not be
caught without great caution. If you desire to examine it closely,
when, in the hottest part of the summer, it comes in the evening and
flutters round the lights, you must be careful how you seize it, for
it wounds. The wounds inflicted by it are very painful--more painful
than those of the bee--and they immediately cause a numbness.
As the _Reduvius_ kills different insects very rapidly, by piercing
them with its long beak, it is probable that it secretes some kind of
venom. But as yet the organ that produces this poison has not been
discovered. However that may be, its beak is curved, and about the
tenth of an inch long, the surface bristling with hairs. It is
composed of three joints, and contains four stiff, lanceolate, and
very pointed squamose hairs.
This insect often seeks its prey in places where spiders spin their
webs. When they walk on, or are caught in, the spiders' webs, the
spiders take care not to seize them, for they fear their beak. They
prudently allow them to struggle about the nets, where they very soon
die of hunger. The _Reduvius_ is often seen, either a prisoner or
dead, in the midst of a spider's web.
"This bug," says Charles de Geer, "has, in the pupal condition, or
before its wings are developed, an appearance altogether hideous and
revolting. One would take it, at the first glance, for one of the
ugliest of spiders. That which above all renders it so disagreeable to
the sight is that it is entirely covered, and, as it were, enveloped
with a greyish matter, which is nothing else but the dust which one
sees in the corners of badly-swept rooms, and which is generally mixed
with sand and particles of wool, or silk, or other similar matters
which come from furniture and clothes, rendering the legs of this
insect thick and deformed, and giving to its whole body a very
singular appearance."
What instincts! what habits! Under this borrowed costume, under this
cloak, which is no part of itself, the insect, as it were, masked, has
become twice its real size. What becomes of its disguise, and how does
it manage to walk? Of what use to it is this dirty and grotesque fancy
dress?
Let us listen to De Geer. "It walks as fast, when it likes, as other
bugs; but generally its walk is slow, and it moves with measured
steps. After having taken one step forward, it stops a while, and then
takes another, leaving, at each movement, the opposite leg in repose;
it goes on thus continually, step after step in succession, which
gives it the appearance of walking as if by jerks, and in measure. It
makes almost the same sort of movement with its antennæ, which it
moves also at intervals and by jerks. All these movements have a more
singular appearance than it is possible for us to describe."[23]
[23] "Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire des Insectes." Tome
iii., p. 283. 4to. Stockholm, 1773.
By means of this disguise, it can approach little animals, which
become its prey, such as flies, spiders, bed bugs.
[Illustration: Fig. 72.--Pupa of Reduvius personatus, covered with its
cloak of dust (magnified).]
[Illustration: Fig. 73.--Pupa of Reduvius personatus, denuded of its
cloak of dust (magnified).]
To see what a curious appearance the _Reduvius_ presents, one should
take off its borrowed costume. Then you will observe an entirely
different animal, and one which has nothing repulsive about it. With
the exception of the hemelytra and wings, which it has not yet got,
all its parts have the form which they are to have later, after the
wings are developed.
Fig. 72 represents, from Charles de Geer's Memoir, the pupa of the
_Reduvius personatus_ covered with dust, and resembling a spider; Fig.
73 the same insect cleaned, freed from the cloak of dust which served
to disguise it.
The _Hydrometræ_ (from [Greek: hydôr], water, and [Greek: metrein], to
measure) have linear bodies. The head, which forms nearly the third
of the entire length, is furnished with two long antennæ, and armed
with a thin, hair-like beak. The legs are long, and of equal length.
The reader may have often seen the _Hydrometra stagnorum_ walking by
jerks on the surface of the water (Fig. 74). The body and legs are of
a ferruginous colour, the hemelytra a dull brown, and the wings
hyaline, or glassy, and slightly blackish. Geoffroy says that it
resembles a long needle, and calls it the Needle Bug.
[Illustration: Fig. 74.--Hydrometra stagnorum.]
The _Hydrocorisæ_, or Water Bugs, have the antennæ shorter than the
head, or scarcely attaining to its length, and inserted and hidden
under the eyes, which are in general of remarkable size. All these
Hemiptera are aquatic and carnivorous. We will mention the two
principal types, the _Nepæ_, or Water Scorpions, and the _Notonectæ_,
or Boatmen.
The _Nepa cinerea_ (Fig. 75), which Geoffroy calls the Oval-bodied
Water Scorpion, and which he also designates by the name of the Water
Spider, is very common in the stagnant waters of ponds and ditches.
Its body, oval, very flat, of an ashy colour, with red on the abdomen,
is four-fifths of an inch long. The hemelytra are horizontal,
coriaceous, and of a dirty grey colour. Its front legs, with short
haunches, and very broad thighs, are terminated by strong pincers,
which give to the insect a strong resemblance to the scorpion. It is
by folding back the leg and the tarsus under the thigh, that the
animal holds its prey, and sucks it with its rostrum or beak.
[Illustration: Fig. 75.--Nepa cinerea.]
This rostrum is composed of three joints, and contains four pointed
bristles. Two present on one side a sort of narrow sharp blade, and
have teeth towards their base. Of the two others, the one is a thin
smooth needle, the other is provided with hairs directed backwards and
forwards.
It is with this rostrum, which resembles a case of surgical
instruments, that the _Nepa_ pierces and sucks little aquatic insects,
not even sparing its own species. Its wound is painful to man, but not
in the least dangerous. With its four hind legs the _Nepa_ swims, but
at a very slow pace. It generally drags itself along the bottom of
the water, on the mud, and does not avoid the hand put out to seize
it. Its body is terminated by a tail, composed of two grooved threads,
which, when applied together, form a tube, capable of being moved from
side to side. Through this canal it breathes the outer air; it puts
the end of it out of the water, and the air enters it by inspiration.
Some very small hairs, with which the interiors of the grooves are
lined, interlace each other, and prevent the water from penetrating
into the canal. It is probable that this same canal serves also for
depositing the eggs. These last resemble small seeds, covered with
points, and are buried in the stalks of aquatic plants.
Next to the _Nepa_ comes the _Ranatra_, with a cylindrical, elongated,
linear body, with very long and very thin hind legs, and of which one
species, which Geoffroy calls the "aquatic scorpion with an elongated
body," is common everywhere in stagnant waters in spring. It is
brownish, carnivorous, and very voracious.
[Illustration: Fig. 76.--Corixa striata.]
We must now mention the genus _Corixa_, of which one species, the
_Corixa striata_, is very common. This insect walks badly and slowly
on land, but swims and cuts through the water with a prodigious
rapidity.
However, it is not to delay over this last species that we have here
mentioned the name of this genus. Some insects which belong to it, and
which are found in Mexico, deserve to be alluded to, on account of
certain peculiarities which their eggs present. A naturalist, M.
Virlet d'Aoust, has published the following details on this subject:--
"Thousands of small amphibious flies," he says, "flit about in the air
on the surface of lakes, and diving down into the water many feet, and
even many fathoms, go to the bottom to lay their eggs, and only emerge
from the water probably to die close by. We were fortunate enough to
be present at a great fishing or harvest of the eggs, which, under the
Mexican name of _hautle_ (_haoutle_), serve for food to the Indians,
who seem to be no less fond of them than the Chinese are of their
swallows' nests, which they resemble somewhat in taste; only the
_hautle_ is far from commanding such high prices as the Chinese pay
for their birds' nests, which for that reason are reserved entirely
for the tables of the rich; while, for a few small coins, we were
able to carry away with us about a bushel of the _hautle_, a portion
of which, at our request, Mme. B---- was kind enough to prepare for
us.
"They dress these in different ways, but generally make a sort of
cake, which is served up with a sauce, to which the Mexicans give a
zest, as they do indeed to all their dishes, by adding to it _chilié_,
which is composed of green pimento crushed. This is how the natives
proceed when they are fishing for _hautle_: they form with reeds bent
together a sort of fasces, which they place vertically in the lake at
some distance from the bank, and as these are bound together by one of
the reeds, the ends of which are so arranged as to form an indicating
buoy, it is easy to draw them out at will. Twelve to fifteen days
suffice for each reed in these fasces to be entirely covered with
eggs, which they thus fish up by millions. The former are then left to
dry in the sun, on a cloth, for an hour or more; the grains are then
easily detached. After this operation, they are replaced in the water
for the next hautle harvest."
M. Virlet had attributed to flies the eggs of which we have been
speaking. But in 1851 M. Guérin-Méneville having received, transmitted
to him by M. Ghiliani, eggs of which _hautle_ is made, and some of the
insects said to produce them, stated that the latter belonged to two
different species. The one had been known a long time since under the
name of _Corixa mercenaria_; M. Guérin-Méneville called the other
_Corixa femorata_.
The same entomologist discovered, among the eggs of these two species,
other eggs of a more considerable size, and which he attributed to a
new species of the genus _Notonecta_, about which we are now going to
say a few words.
The _Notonecta glauca_, which Geoffroy calls the Large Bug with Oars
("Grande punaise à avirons"), is very common in ditches, reservoirs,
and stagnant waters. Its body is oblong, narrow, contracted
posteriorly, convex above, flat below, having, at its sides and its
extremities, hairs which, when spread out, support the animal on the
water. Its head is large and of a slightly greenish grey, and has on
each of its sides a very large eye of a pale brown colour. Its thorax
is greyish, the hemelytra of a greenish grey, the membranous wings
white. Of its legs, the front four are short; but the hind legs,
almost twice as long, are furnished with long hairs, and resemble
oars. It is with the aid of these that the animal moves through the
water; and it does so in a singular manner, placing itself on its
back, and generally in an inclined position, as in Fig. 77.
When this insect, on the contrary, drags itself along on the mud, the
front legs are those which it employs, the hind legs being idle, and
merely drawn along behind it. It is generally towards the evening or
during the night that it comes out of the water, to walk and to fly,
if it wishes to pass from one marsh to another.
[Illustration: Fig. 77.--Notonecta glauca.]
This bloodthirsty insect lives entirely by rapine; it is one of the
most carnivorous of insects. Those which it attacks die very soon
after they have been hurt by it. De Geer thinks that the water bug
drops into the wound a poisonous humour. It seizes upon insects much
bigger, and apparently much stronger, than itself, and does not spare
its own species.
The instrument with which the _Notonecta_ attacks its prey is composed
of a very strong and very long conical beak, formed of four joints.
The sucker is composed of an upper piece, short and pointed, and of
four fine pointed hairs.
The female of the _Notonecta glauca_ lays a great number of eggs,
white, and of elongated shape, which it deposits on the stems and
leaves of aquatic plants. The eggs are hatched at the beginning of
spring, or in May, and the young ones at once begin to swim about like
their mother, on their backs, belly upwards. M. Léon Dufour says on
this subject:--
"A dorsal region, raised like a donkey's back, or like the rounded
keel of a boat, and covered with a velvety substance, which renders it
impermeable, numerous fine fringes which garnish either the hind legs,
or the borders of the abdomen and thorax, or lastly in a double row
form a crest or comb running down the surface of the belly, and which
spread themselves out or fold themselves in at the will of the insect,
just like fins, favour both this supine attitude and the accuracy of
the swimming movements of the _Notonectæ_. Since Nature--which seems
often to delight in producing extraordinary exceptions to her ordinary
rules, thus bearing witness to the immensity of her resources--had
condemned this animal to pass its life in an inverted position, it was
necessary, for the maintenance of its existence, that it should
provide it with an organisation in harmony with this attitude. It is
also for this object that its head is bent over its chest; that its
eyes, of an oval shape, can see below from above; that the front as
well as the middle legs, agile and curved, solely destined for
prehension, can to a certain extent become unbent by means of the
elongated haunches which fix them to the body, and clutch firm hold of
their prey with the strong claws which terminate the tarsi."