The Insect Folk Part 29

Mollie says they have no little feet like the others, and she thinks they are antennae.

Well, well, what are we to do? Think of its having feelers that look like legs or legs that look like feelers, so that you cannot tell which they are!

Now it is beginning to move, and--Oh, ho, that long part in front is not its head!

[Ill.u.s.tration]

See, it separates into two--what?

Surely, two front legs.

See, they were folded up, somewhat like the front legs of the mantis, only these could fold close together, being threadlike.

So the long threads are antennae after all.

Now it has raised its head, which we easily see is quite round, with tiny eyes, and the antennae are growing out from the front of it.

What is it? A walking stick? A mantis?

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Why! why! There it goes, sailing off in the air with a queer little fluttering motion of its whole body.

It has wings!

John has caught it and brought it back.

Now let us see those wings, you strange little creature.

You will have to look close, but there they are, narrow, short, such tiny wings! How _do_ you suppose it flies with them?

You seem queerer and queerer the more we look at you, little what-shall-we-call-you.

But we know you are not a walking stick because our walking sticks have no wings.

The truth is you are a--bug!

Yes, this little threadlike creature belongs to the same order as the big flat giant water bug.

It grasps its victim, in its fore feet like the mantis, but instead of biting its prey it sucks out the juices.

You would hardly expect such a delicate creature to catch and kill other insects, yet such is the case.

No, I do not think it will pierce your finger with its beak. I have often handled them, and have never been stung by one. We often see them walking about in the gra.s.s and along paths.

THE WELL DRESSED LACE BUG

[Ill.u.s.tration: HAWTHORN TWIG.]

IF we pay a visit to that hawthorn bush we shall probably find a bug to our liking. Yes, here is one.

It is a tiny thing, I know, but wait until you see it under the microscope.

Ah, I thought you would be pleased!

Nell says it looks as though it had on a lace party dress.

Is it not a dainty fairy!

We call it the lace bug.

It does not suck the juices of other insects, but instead it sucks the juices of plants.

Its eggs are very curious. It lays them on leaves and glues them fast.

They look like little out-growths of the leaf.

The young lace bugs are like their parents in form, only, of course, they have no wings and so they are not pretty.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Fairy lace bug, we are glad to make your acquaintance.

A BAD BUG

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Now, here is a bug we all loathe. It is round and flat, and reddish brown in color, and it has a disgusting odor.

But though we hate this bug, it is very fond of us. It has a short, sharp tube folded down under its head, and this tube it likes to raise up and stick into the skin of people, and suck out their blood.

It has no wings, only a pair of little scales where its wings should be.

Yes, May, these scales are rudimentary wings, and they are good for nothing. It once had wings, but it preferred to go slipping about in cracks and hiding in beds, until in course of time no wings grew, which served it right.

It has antennae and eyes and spiracles; indeed, it has everything a bug should have but wings and good manners.

We call it the bed bug because its favorite home is in beds, so that it can sally forth at night and feast upon its sleeping victims.

It lays its eggs in cracks and crevices, and each egg is like a little jar with a rim and a lid at the top. When the young one hatches it pushes off the lid. The young are in shape like their parents, only they are very light colored, and almost transparent. They look like ghosts of bugs, but they are very voracious ghosts indeed, and they eat and moult and grow and become darker colored until they reach maturity.

One strange thing about them is that they can live a very long time with nothing to eat, so that houses long vacated may still contain these nuisances, that sally forth, eager to round out their emaciated forms at the expense of the new occupants of the house.