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It's a Bugs Life Traditional Cache

This cache has been archived.

angellica: Seems a shame to put this one to bed, but seems access to GZ is getting harder and I'm not in a position to be able to get down to replace.

Many thanks to all those who visited and your feedback has been appreciated. Hope someone else puts some caches in this park :-)

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Hidden : 9/20/2009
Difficulty:
2 out of 5
Terrain:
2 out of 5

Size: Size:   micro (micro)

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Geocache Description:

Hemiptera is an order of insects, comprising around 80,000 species of cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, shield bugs, and others. They range in size from 1 mm to around 15 cm, and share a common arrangement of sucking mouthparts.

Characteristics

The defining feature of hemipterans is their possession of mouthparts where the mandibles and maxillae have evolved into a proboscis, sheathed within a modified labium to form a "beak" or "rostrum" which is capable of piercing tissues (usually plant tissues) and sucking out the liquids — typically sap.

The name "Hemiptera" is from the Greek hemi ("half") and pteron ("wing"), referring to the forewings of many hemipterans which are hardened near the base, but membranous at the ends. These wings are termed hemelytra (singular: hemelytron), by analogy with the completely hardened elytra of beetles. They may be held "roofwise" over the body, or held flat on the back, with the ends overlapping. The hindwings are entirely membranous and are usually shorter than the forewings.

The wings of Hemiptera are either entirely membranous such as in the Sternorrhyncha and Auchenorrhyncha or in the form of hemelytra in the Heteroptera, the true bugs. Hemelytra refers to the partially hardened forewings, usually the anterior portion or the corium. The hindwings of Heteroptera are membranous.

The antennae in Hemiptera are typically five-segmented, although they can still be quite long, and the tarsi of the legs are three-segmented or shorter.

Although hemipterans vary widely in their overall form, their mouthparts (formed into a "rostrum") are quite distinctive; the only orders with mouthparts modified in a similar manner are the Thysanoptera and some Phthiraptera, and these are generally easy to recognize as non-hemipteran for other reasons. Aside from the mouthparts, various insects can be confused with hemipterans, including cockroaches and psocids, both of which have longer many-segmented antennae, and some beetles, but these have fully-hardened forewings which do not overlap.

Additional Hints (Decrypt)

Onfr bs gerr ba gur evtug fvqr bs gur cngu vs lbh ner ybbxvat gbjneqf gur qentbasyl. Haqre yrnirf naq n syng fgbar

Decryption Key

A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|I|J|K|L|M
-------------------------
N|O|P|Q|R|S|T|U|V|W|X|Y|Z

(letter above equals below, and vice versa)