It is said that spiders are great enemies to Bugs, and that they will destroy numbers of them if allowed to remain in the infested rooms.

Some years ago, I was very much perplexed, not to say annoyed, by the occasional presence of these insects in my dining-room, as well as in a bed-room immediately above it. I found at last that they came from some nests of the common house martin that were fixed just above the window. I got a long ladder for the purpose of examining the nests, and found their clay walls absolutely swarming with these insects. I tried a few experiments on a small lump of clay which was tenanted by them, and found that although they disliked the odour of turpentine, and crawled out of their refuge when placed in a tin box together with a piece of cotton- wool soaked in spirits of turpentine, they were not killed by it after an imprisonment of thirty-six hours, and rapidly recovered themselves when restored to the fresh air.

I was extremely sorry to disturb the martins, for I used much to enjoy watching the pretty birds so close to my window. But their parasites were so annoying that there was no alternative but to remove the nests and brush oil over the wall, so that the clay would not adhere when the birds tried to erect new nests in the same spot. Some entomologists think that these insects are not the same species as the Acanthia lectularia. Whether this be the case or not, they have the same unpleasant habit of attacking human beings and the same abominable odour, and must be extirpated ruthlessly. They will travel for considerable distances from the nests in which they are hatched. I have seen four or five of them creeping along a wall and making their way to a window which was not only much below the nest, but quite on the opposite side of the house.

A few of the details of this insect’s structure are given on Woodcut LXVII. At Fig. a is shown one of its fore-legs, at Fig. b the antenna, with its slender terminal joint. Fig d is a greatly magnified representation of the beak, and Fig. c shows a profile view of the head together with the beak.

It has already been mentioned that the spider will destroy the Bed-Bug. There is one of its own relations, however, which performs this operation much more effectually. It is popularly called the Flt-Bug, and its scientific name is Reduvius personatus. A rather enlarged portrait of this curious insect is given on Woodcut LXVII. Fig. 3. This insect is an example of the Eeduviidse.

The colour of the Fly-Bug is brown, sometimes blackish, and sometimes with a yellowish tint. The tibise are yellow at their bases, and the abdomen has a shining surface, black below, but with a yellow patch in the middle above.

The insect is sometimes found within houses, but is generally taken on account of its habit of flying towards light, and so entering at night windows of lighted rooms. Mr. E. A. Smith tells me that at Deal he found several Fly-Bugs lying dead under a window-sill. Both in its perfect and preliminary stages, the Fly-Bug feeds on other insects, and has such a liking for the Bed-Bug that a room has been cleared of these obnoxious insects by the introduction of a few Fly-Bugs.

In its larval and pupal states, this insect has a habit of enveloping itself in a thick coating of dust and other refuse, and is so addicted to this practice that, after it has shed its skin and come out all bright and clean, it has been seen deliberately to take the dust coating from its shed skin and place it on its new coat. The specific name of personatus, or disguised, has been given to the insect in consequence of this habit. The Reduvius is a much more formidable enemy to the Bed-Bug than the spider, for the latter has to wait for the chance of its prey coming to its net, whereas the former is a hunter and seeks prey for itself. An entomologist in my neighbourhood, who kept a larva of the Reduvius, found that it would eat three or four Bugs daily, so that a few of these insects, if at liberty, must cause great havoc among our ‘ Norfolk Howards.’

Apart from the service which it renders, this Reduvius is not

a veiy pleasant insect. Its odour is scarcely less disgusting than that of its wingless relative, and, if captured, it has a very unpleasant way of driving its beak into the fingers of its captor. Under such conditions, it also emits a rather sharp creaking sound, which is said to he produced by the friction of the elytra.

Another example of the Eeduviidse is given on Woodcut LXVII. Fig. 2. It is called Coranus suhapterus.

In all the Reduviidae the beak is comparatively short, thick, and more or less curved. The head is so narrowed behind as to form a neck. There are two ocelli, the eyes are very prominent, and the terminal joints of the antennae are slender. The legs are long and active. Many of these insects have the wings only slightly developed, so that they come nnder the category of ‘ imperfect perfect insects.’ Such is the case with the present species, which has derived its name of suhapterus (a most barbarous compound, by the way) from the structure of the wings, which only reach as far as the third seg-ment of the abdomen.

I really do not like to translate such a word as subaptei'us, which is a repulsive hybrid between Latin and G-reek, and— with all respect to the eminent entomologist who first manufactiu'ed it — ought not to be accepted in its present form. What, for example, should we think of such words as eightagon, twelvehedron, dreiangle, petitscope, telesseer, insectology, etoilonomy, erdology, and so forth ? Yet there is not one of these words which is one whit more ridicnlous than suhapterus. Should we be allowed to talk, much less write, of a hemiglobe, an eggpositor, a chaudmeter, a baromeasurer, a virful deed, or a megananimous sentiment ? But, if we are to retain the one word, there can be no reason why we should not employ the others.

However, the name being given and accepted, let us see what it means. The preposition ‘ sub,’ when prefixed to adjectives, gives them a partial sense. Thus, subiratus means rather angry ; subdoctus, moderately learned ; subcandidus, whitish ; and so forth. But, in all these cases, both parts of the word belong to the same language. Had the offending entomologist used the word subalatus, or partly winged, no one could have objected to it, as both words are Latin. Apart from other reasons, it is a prettier-looking word than suhapterus

and much easier to say. But when he employs the word sub, which is Latin, as a prefix to the Greek pteron, I do not see that we should be called upon to excoriate our own ears and those of future generations with such an atrocious compound.

I bebeve that brown sugar and oysters are considered incompatible, as is salt with strawberry cream. There is, perhaps, not one in ten thousand who would not feel direfully aggrieved by having any such mixtures forced on him as part of his daily diet. And there is really no more reason for offending our eyes, ears, and mental taste by subapterus, than our mere palates by the above-mentioned mixtures.

The general colour of this insect is dusky black, relieved by a clothing of short, yellow hairs. Beneath it is yellowish-brown. The ocelli are red and the antennae pale brown. The membranous portion of the short wing is rather contracted, and the nervures are black. It is found in dry, sandy places, hiding under heath, furze, and other plants. When handled, it gives out an odour which, unlike those of most of its kind, is of a pleasant nature, and bears some resemblance to that of a ripe pear. Although in most cases the wings of this insect are in the imperfect state which has just been described, they are sometimes, but very rarely, fully developed.

We now come to that group of Heteroptera which has been mentioned as passing most of their time on, though not in, the water. They are scientifically called Hydrometridse, or Water-measurers, because they seem to measure the surface of the water with their long and slender legs ; and they are popularly known by the name of Water-gaiats, because the smaller specimens have some resemblance to gnats without their wings. Two specimens of this group are given on Woodcut LXVIII., in order to show the aspect of the insect in different attitudes.

In all these insects the body is long, narrow, and is mostly covered on the under-surface with a fine coating of velvet-like hairs, which are capable of resisting the action of the water. The beak is rather long, curved under the breast, and the last joint but one is considerably longer than the others. Some of them run over the surface of the water with great speed, their middle pair of legs acting as propellers, their hind legs as

rudders whereby they direct their course, and their fore-legs stretched out in front for the purpose of seizing their prey. When the insect is at rest, these legs are folded under the body in the attitude which they assume when the prey is held against the breast, so that the long, curved, sharply-pointed beak may be driven into it. One of these prehensile legs is shown at Fig. a, and a profile view of the head, so as to show the form of the beak, with its long penultimate ioint, is given at Fig. b.

Hydromjtra gibbifera. 2. Hydrometra argentata. 3. Corixa Geoffrojl. 4. Ilalticocoris liiteicollis. a. Hydrometra argentata, fore-leg. 6. Do., head, with antenna and tongue.

These insects afford many examples of the imperfect-perfect state, which has been the trouble of most entomologists until its true nature was cleared up. In tliis condition, tlie Hydrometridas so exactly resemble pupa;, that wlien they were seen exercising all the functions of the perfect insect, the observers were naturally perplexed.

Those specimens in which the wings are fully developed can use them well. I have noticed that, when alighting in the water after flight, they always use their legs for the purpose of tucking the wings under the elytra, just as the earwig uses its forceps and the rove-beetle the end of its flexible tail. With these legs they wash themselves frequently, appearing to be singularly fastidious respecting cleanliness. I have often seen these insects standing on the three legs of one side, while employing those of the other side in brushing the body, every portion of which was carefully passed under the feet. The attitude is most singular, and I have never seen it adopted by any other insect.

They are all predacious, seizing their prey with their fore-legs. I have seen one of these creatures, having caught an insect, hold it out in front of its body with its fore-feet, while making its way to some place where it could in safety suck the lifejuices of its prey. Predacious as they are, they also fall victims to larger inhabitants of the water — the well-known Waterboatman making great havoc among them, and taking on the average five or six minutes in sucking dry the body of its prey.

The name of the species shown at Fig. 1 is Hydrometra gihbifera. Its colour is blackish-brown above, and beneath it is black, with a silvery or brassy lustre when seen in a sidelight. The specific name of gihbifera, or bunch -bearing, is given to it on account of a rounded tubercle or bunch upon the anterior angles of the thorax. The male has also a large orange-coloured tubercle on the back of the thorax, near its junction with the abdomen. There is a short, thick, yellow line drawn longitudinally on the middle of the front part of the thorax. The elytra are blackish-brown, with a slight blue gloss in certain lights, and the nervures are clothed with golden hairs and scales. The middle pair of legs is the longest. This species is very common on the surface of water, whether it be stagnant or running.

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