ORDER HEMIPTERA.
Including the Land Bugs, Water Bugs, Plant Bugs, Skaters, Lantern Flies, Frog Hoppers, Aphides, and their Allies.
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.
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.