includes plant-lice, scale insects and bugs proper. One entomologist says: "If anything were to exterminate the destroyers of hemiptera, we, ourselves, would probably be starved in the course of a few months," so harmful are they to vegetation. One of the best-known insects of this order is the cicada or harvestfly, popularly but wrongly called the "locust," the term "locust" belonging rightfully to the long-horned grasshoppers. The body of the cicada is large with a blunt head. At the end 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 are resting upon a twig, it is difficult, except upon close examination, to distinguish them from a thorn or a natural protuberance of the wood.

The Spittle Insects. After hatching from the egg the young insects live in little frothy masses like spittle on the stems of plants and grasses.

Scale Insects. Many of the members of this family are very injurious to fruit trees and other trees. They feed upon the sap.

The Oyster-shell Bark Louse is found particularly upon apple and pear trees.

Plant Lice. These insects prey upon cultivated plants. Huxley computed that the uninterrupted breeding of ten generations of plant lice from the single insect would produce a bulk equal to the population of the Chinese Empire, 500,000,000 of human beings. We have already spoken of the relations between ants and plant lice; they are often called "Ant Cows" because of the ant's habit of milking them for the juices which they exhume.

The "Water Boatmen" may be found swimming on the surface of water. They often go below the surface, carrying with them a bubble of air which is held by the hairs of their body. They hibernate in the mud at the bottom of the water. The eggs of these insects are made into cakes and are eaten 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 other water insects and even fish. They can sting with their beak.

They have a short, wide body, protruding eyes and toad-like color. They are found in damp places under the banks of ponds and streams.

The Water Striders are the long-legged insects which run over the surface of the water with such speed that it is difficult to catch them.

The Cannibal Bugs, the Pirate Bugs, are preying insects which feed upon other insects whose blood they suck. A species of this insect was especially abundant in the Eastern States in 1898. Their bites and blood-sucking habits gave cause to the "kissing-bug" scare to which the newspapers gave great publicity.

is the name which Professor Comstock has given to insects frequenting yellow flowers, with which its color agrees and hides it from other insects visiting the flowers.

is the enemy of vegetables of the pumpkin family and has a distinctly disagreeable odor.

are small flat bugs which, like the Squash Bug, have a bad odor. One of this family is still called, in Georgia, "The Abe Lincoln" bug, and in Texas, "The Third Party" bug.

This is a bug that makes a specialty of corn and grasses as a diet.

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