Fig. 260—Cyrtocoris monstrosus. South America, × 3.
Very little is known as to the life-histories of Pentatomidae. In some cases the young are very different in appearance from the adults. The peculiar great scutellum is not developed till the mature condition is reached. But little attention has been given to the habits of Pentatomidae; it is generally considered that they draw their nutriment from plants; the American Euthyrhynchus floridanus has, however, been noticed to suck the honey-bee, and we think it probable that a good many Pentatomids will be found to attack Insects.
The term Pentatomidae as applied to this family is of modern origin: in most books the equivalent group is called Scutata, or Scutati, and the term Pentatomidae is restricted in these works to the sub-family called Pentatomides in the system we adopt.
Fam. 2. Coreidae.—Scutellum not reaching to the middle of the body; proboscis-sheath four-jointed; ocelli present; antennae generally elongate and four-jointed, inserted on the upper parts of the sides of the head; femora not knobbed at the tip.—The members of this great family are easily recognised by the above characters; formerly it was called Supericornia in connection with the characteristic position of the antennae. About 1500 species are known, and they are arranged in no less than twenty-nine sub-families. Many of them are Insects of large size, and they frequently have a conspicuous disc, or dilatation, on one of the joints of the antennae.
Fig. 261.—Diactor bilineatus. South America. × 3⁄2.
Fig. 262—Phyllomorpha laciniata, carrying some of its eggs. Spain.
Another very curious and, as yet, inexplicable peculiarity very commonly met with among them, is that the hind legs may be of great size and deformed; either the femora or the tibiae, or both, being very much distorted or armed with projections. Brilliant colour is here comparatively rare, the general tone being indefinite tints of browns, greys, or smoky colours. The South American genus Holymenia (Copius of older authors) consists of slender forms, having the elytra transparent even on the basal part like Homoptera; this and some other peculiarities give the species of this genus a certain resemblance to Insects of other Orders; Westwood says that Diateina holymenoides (Diptera) greatly resembles a bug of the genus Holymenia. The tropical American genus Diactor consists of a few species of elegant colour having the hind legs very peculiarly shaped, the tibiae being flattened and expanded in a sail-like manner, and ornamented with agreeable colours different from those on the rest of the body; they are made more conspicuous by the femora being remarkably long and thin; it is probable that they are used as ornaments. The subfamily Phyllomorphides consists of about a dozen species, and is found in several of the western parts of the Eastern hemisphere, one species, P. laciniata, occurring in Southern Europe. This Insect is of very delicate texture, and the sides of the body are directed upwards and deeply divided so that a sort of basin is formed, of which the dorsum of the body is the floor; the Insect is very spinose, and is thus enabled to carry its eggs, the spines helping to retain them in position on the back. It is said to be the male that thus carries the eggs. This species is able to stridulate, and when doing so vibrates its antennae with excessive rapidity. We have only about a score of species of Coreidae in Britain, and none of the remarkable forms of the family are among them.
Fam. 3. Berytidae.—Very slender Insects with the first joint of the antennae and the femora thickened at the tips.—This small family was not distinguished from Coreidae by the older authors. It consists of about fifty species, eight of which are found in Britain.
Fam. 4. Lygaeidae.—The characters are the same as those mentioned for Coreidae, except as regards the insertion of the antennae; the upper surface or face of the head is not so flat, but is transversely convex, so that seen in profile the antennae appear to be inserted well down on the sides of the head.—The name Infericornia was formerly applied to these Insects. They are on the average of smaller size than the members of the Coreidae or Pentatomidae, and are much less conspicuous in colour and form; a good many of the larger Lygaeids are, however, variegate with black, yellow, and red. The family is very numerous in species, about 1400 being known; they are arranged in thirteen sub-families; we have about sixty species in Britain, nearly all small. Eremocoris lives, when immature, in the nests of the wood-ant, according to Wasmann. The family includes some notorious Insect-pests. The Chinch-bug, Blissus leucopterus, commits very serious ravages on corn and grasses in North America. The Cotton-stainer, Dysdercus suturellus is also very injurious to cotton in certain parts of the New World: its growth has been described by Riley,[[485]] who thinks a dye valuable for commercial purposes might be procured from the Insect. This bug has recently developed the habit of sucking oranges, and has thus become injurious in Florida, as the fruit readily decays after it has been punctured by these Insects. The phenomenon of "micropterism" is exhibited by numerous Lygaeids, as well as by Pyrrhocoridae.