Homoptera

“ We have only two species of the family in Britain, and these do not afford any ground for supposing that there are any peculiarities in their lives at all commensurate with the oddness of the Insect's structures. Belt has recorded the fact that in Nicaragua the larvae of certain Homoptera were assiduously attended by ants for the sake of a sweet juice excreted by the bugs, but it is by no means clear that these larvae were really those of Membracidae. ”

“ The feelers have one or more thickened basal segments, while the remaining segments are slender and thread-like. The fore-wings are sometimes membranous like the hind-wings, usually they are firmer in texture, but they never show the distinct areas that characterize the wings of Heteroptera. When at rest the wings of Homoptera slope roofwise across the back of the insect. In their life-history the Homoptera are more specialized than the Heteroptera; the young insect often differs markedly from its parent and does not live in the same situations ”

“ The orthoptera include, as familiar examples, cockroaches, crickets, katydids, and grasshoppers; the neuroptera white ants, May-flies, caddis-flies, dragon-flies or devil’s darning needles, and hoodlbugs; the hymenoptera common ants, wasps and bees; the lepidoptera butterflies, moths, silk-worms, and humming-birds; the hemiptera plant lice, cochineals, and locusts; the diptera mosquitoes, house-flies, horse-flies, and bot-flies.
The order hemiptera is frequently divided into two, according as the wings are of a uniform texture, homoptera, or of a varied texture, heteroptera ”

“ This goes to show that a long period of quiescence is necessary to perfect these delicate and highly specialized organs, and by a parity of reasoning it may perhaps be assumed that those pupæ which remain longest in that stage will (ceteris paribus) produce the most highly developed and vitalized images."
The President read "Notes upon a Strepsipterous Insect parasitic on an Exotic Species of Homoptera (Epora subtilis, Walk.) from Sarawak," accompanied by drawings illustrating the metamorphosis. ”

“ Hemimetabolous: manifesting an incomplete metamorphosis, but with a marked difference between the stages: specifically the Ephemerida, Odonata and Perlidae. {Scanner's comment: nowadays applied to far more orders, generally to those that undergo a marked metamorphosis, but without a pupal stage.}
Hemiptera: half-winged: an ordinal term applied to insects in which the mouth parts consist of four lancets inclosed in a jointed beak or rostrum; metamorphosis incomplete: the primaries may be of uniform texture throughout (Homoptera) or may be thickened at base, membranous at tip (Heteroptera) . ”

“ If we admit that the females of the Homoptera and Orthoptera appreciate the musical tones of their male partners, and that the various instruments have been perfected through sexual selection, there is little improbability in the females of other insects appreciating beauty in form or colour, and consequently in such characters having been thus gained by the males. ”

“ Classification.—The number of described species of Hemiptera must now be nearly 20,000. The order is divided into two sub-orders, the Heteroptera and the Homoptera. The Anoplura or lice should not be included among the Hemiptera, but it has been thought convenient to refer briefly to them at the close of this article.
Heteroptera
In this sub-order are included the various families of bugs and their aquatic relations. The front of the head is not in contact with the haunches of the fore-legs. There is usually a marked difference between the wings of the two pairs. ”

“ The colours, odours, and sounds of animals, like the colours and odours of plants—so far as they may be assumed to be in some way connected with the reproductive functions—are, as a rule, complementary to each other. Stridulating insects are generally not conspicuously coloured. Among the Homoptera, there do not seem to be any well-marked cases of ornamental differences between the sexes. Among crickets, the Locustidæ, and grasshoppers, some species are beautifully coloured; but Mr. Darwin says, “It is not probable that they owe their bright tints to sexual selection. ”

“ Amongst the Homoptera and Orthoptera there are many instances where the males possess organs capable of producing loud sounds, and these are rudimentary or absent in the females, whilst in other cases, both sexes produce call-notes. Particularly amongst the Coleoptera, the males may differ very greatly from the females in the shape of the body and may be decorated with extraordinary growths of the head and thorax. ”

“ A single pin will thus bear five or six rows, and in giving away or sending away specimens the lowest row is taken from the pin and repinned for mailing. The accompanying figure (Fig. 103) illustrates the mounting of a moderate-sized species in rows of two specimens each. This method of mounting duplicates may be adopted not only for Coleoptera, but also for Heteroptera, Homoptera (excepting Aphididæ and allied families) , smaller Orthoptera, and Hymenoptera. It is, however, impracticable for Lepidoptera, Diptera, and most Neuroptera. ”

“ In the same manner as bright colours have often been partially transferred from the males to the females, so it has been with the extraordinary horns of many Lamellicorn and some other beetles. So again, the sound-producing organs proper to the males of the Homoptera and Orthoptera have generally been transferred in a rudimentary, or even in a nearly perfect condition, to the females; yet not sufficiently perfect to be of any use. It is also an interesting fact, as bearing on sexual selection, that the stridulating organs of certain male Orthoptera are not fully developed until the last moult ”

“ Classification and families.—No complete catalogue of Hemiptera exists, but one by M. Severin is in course of publication. It is probable that there are about 18,000 species at present described, two-thirds of this number being Heteroptera. In Britain we have about 430 species of Heteroptera and 600 of Homoptera. The classification of the Order is not in a very advanced condition. The following table exhibits the views of Schiödte [481] in a modified form:—
Front of head not touching the coxae. ”

“ In the males, on the other hand, they become fully developed and acquire their perfect structure at the last moult, when the insect is mature and ready to breed.
From the facts now given, we see that the means by which the males produce their sounds are extremely diversified in the Orthoptera, and are altogether different from those employed by the Homoptera. But throughout the animal kingdom we incessantly find the 360same object gained by the most diversified means ”

“ They all have feet, and the body is more or less flattened. (Fig. 560.)
II. Holometabola.—In this division we have for the first time a true larva, and a pupa stage as distinguished from the imago. Moreover, the insect at each stage is distinguished by radical differences in form, surroundings, and in the nature of the food, while the pupa is inactive, usually immovable, and incapable of taking any food, and is often protected by a cocoon spun by the larva. The holometabolous orders are the Neuroptera, Coleoptera, Mecoptera, Trichoptera, Lepidoptera, Siphonaptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera. ”

“ Like butterflies, they have four wings for flying; but these wings, instead of being covered with scales—those scales that come off on your hand and look like dust—are simply membranes of a transparent or gauzy appearance. Hence the name hymenoptera that is given to these insects, a Latin name that may be translated as ‘membranous-winged creatures.’ Furthermore, they have at the end of the abdomen a very fine sting which comes out of its sheath when the irritated insect seeks to defend itself by pricking the venturesome fingers that have seized it. ”

“ Now, the majority of the Orthoptera quit the egg in a form which is distinguished from that of the adult Insect almost solely by the want of wings; these larvæ then soon acquire rudiments of wings, which appear more strongly developed after every moult. Even this perfectly gradual transition from the youngest larva to the sexually mature Insect, preserves in a far higher degree the picture of an original mode of development, than does the so-called complete metamorphosis of the Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, or Diptera, with its abruptly separated larva-, pupa- and imago-states. ”

“ Some authors have placed Coleoptera or beetles as the highest of insects, others claim for Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths a first place, while others, and with the best of reasons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest position. The moth is admired for the glory of its coloring and elegance of its form, the beetle for the luster and brilliancy of its elytra or wing-covers; but these insects only revel in nature's wealth, and live and die without labor or purpose. ”

“ Thus we find throughout the order a degree of care for offspring unreached by other insects, and this family-life has, in the best known of the Hymenoptera—ants, wasps and bees—developed into an elaborate social organization.
Social Life.—The development of a true insect society among the Hymenoptera is dependent on a differentiation among the females between individuals with well-developed ovaries (“queens”) whose special function is reproduction; and individuals with reduced or aborted ovaries (“workers”) whose duty is to build the nest, to gather food and to tend and feed the larvae. ”

“ As far as Lepidoptera are concerned, and certain of Hemiptera, they are right—the antennæ in these creatures are the seat of the organs of audition. But in Orthoptera, in most of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Diptera, and in certain bugs (Hemiptera) , they are located elsewhere. The habit that almost all insects have of retracting their antennæ when alarmed by noise, or otherwise, has done much to advance and strengthen the opinion that these appendages are the seat of insect ears ”

“ Into this burrow she pushes a large quantity of spiders, which she has previously captured and paralyzed with her venomous sting. When her nest is properly provisioned she deposits an egg in it, closes the hole with a neat plug of clay, and leaves the larva to quietly consume its half-dead companions. Each female, no doubt, forms a large number of these cells during the summer. While cutting up old logs for Coleoptera, the entomologist will not infrequently come across these nests, when the insects may be found in various stages of development. ”

“ And even if we grant, what I consider inadmissible, a Sphex catching flies, other difficulties crowd in. It is now proved on evidence that the burrowing Hymenoptera do not carry dead bodies to their larvæ, but merely prey benumbed and paralysed. What, then, is the meaning of this prey whose head, abdomen, and wings are cut off? The torso carried away is but a [125] portion of a corpse that would infect the cell and be useless to the larva, not yet to be hatched for several days. It is perfectly clear that Darwin’s insect was not a Sphex, strictly speaking. ”

“ Indian naturalists as a whole and oriental entomologists in general will gladly welcome this publication. The Hymenoptera have not attracted numerous workers and students as the Lepidoptera have done, and yet, as our author remarks, the "Hymenoptera have a right to be considered the most highly developed mentally of all insects." Many observations have proved this, but many also are lost through field naturalists being often unable to recognise the species, nay, even the genus, of the insect whose economy or traits they have observed. ”

“ This type of insect gradually gave rise to the orders which now contain the largest number of species, including the beetles, moths, and flies. In many lines of this neuropteroid branch, as it is called, the larva has become adapted to a mode of life quite different from that of the adult. Many fly larvae, for example, live in rotting organic material or live as parasites within the tissues of other kinds of insects, whereas the adult flies often feed at flowers on pollen and nectar, visiting the site of the larval habitat only to lay eggs. ”

“ In the holometabolous insects there is a resting, quiescent stage during the pupal period, when the insect takes no food. In this respect the more specialized insects differ from other metamorphic animals. The larva has an abundant supply of fat lasting through pupal life, while in the quiescent pupa, respiration and circulation is much lessened, the animal being as a rule motionless. This resting stage is also necessary for the histolysis and formation of the adult body from the imaginal buds present in the larva. ”

“ In this and in the following orders of insects, the life history includes four distinct stages, the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the adult. In the Megaloptera, which include alderflies and dobsonflies, the larvae are caterpillar-like or grublike, and the pupae represent a transformation stage in which the tissues of the larvae are converted to those of the adults. The larvae never have external wing pads; in winged species, these pads first appear externally in the pupae. The adults have long antennae, two similar pairs of net-veined wings, and chewing mouthparts. ”

“ The Ammophila excavates alone, deliberately, with no joyous ardour. As usual, the anterior tarsi do duty as rakes and the mandibles as mining tools. If some grain of sand offer too much resistance, you may hear rising from the bottom of the well a kind of shrill grinding sound, produced by the vibration of the wings and entire body as if to express the insect’s struggles. Frequently the Hymenopteron comes up with a load of refuse in its jaws, some bit of gravel which it drops as it flies some little way off, in order not to block up the place. ”