cracks of furniture, but moves about alone, at a slow pace, over' walls or the counterpanes of beds. Its beak is very long, and its bite is very painful, and produces obstinate swellings.

The other species is the Acanthia rotimdata, which is found in the Island of La Reunion, and attacks men in the same way as does the European bug. Two species of the same genus live as parasites on swallows and domestic pigeons. There is another species, which is peculiar to the bats of northern climates.

The Reditz'ius pcrsondlus, called also Fly Bug, by Geoffroy, the old historian of the insects of the environs of Paris, is common

enough in France. It keeps to the houses, and is found especially near ovens and chimney-pieces. It is about three-quarters of an inch in length, oblong, flat on its upper side, brownish, has horizontal hemelytra crossed over each other, and very fully developed wings, •which serve for flight. Its head, narrow, supported by a well-defined neck, is provided with two composite and two simple eyes. It requires, no doubt, to see very clearly, as it flies by night. It should not be caught without great caution. If you desire to examine it closely, when, in the hottest part of the summer, it comes in the evening and flutters round the lights, you must be careful how you seize it, for it wounds. The wounds inflicted by it are very painful — more painful than those of the bee— and they immediately cause a numbness. As the Reduvius kills different insects very rapidly, by piercing them with its long beak, it is probable that it secretes some kind of venom. But as yet the organ that produces this poison has not been discovered. However that may be, its beak is curved, and about the tenth of an inch long, the surface bristling with hairs. It is composed of three joints, and contains four stiff, lanceolate, and very pointed squamose hairs. This insect often seeks its prey in places where spiders spin their webs. When they walk on, or are caught in, the spiders' webs, the spiders take care not to seize them, for they fear their beak. They prudently allow them to stniggle about the nets, where they very soon die of hunger. The Reduvius is often seen, either a prisoner jor dead, in the midst of a spider's web. " This bug," says Charles de Geer, " has, in the pupal condition, or before its wings are developed, an appearance altogether hideous and revolting. One would take it, at the first glance, for one of the ugliest of spiders. That which above all renders it so disagreeable to the sight is that it is entirely covered, and, as it were, enveloped with a greyish matter, which is nothing else but the dust which one sees in the corners of badly-swept rooms, and which is generally mixed with sand and particles of wool, or silk, or other similar matters which come from furniture and clothes, rendering the legs of this insect thick and deformed, and giving to its whole body a very

singular appearance." What instincts! what habits! Under this, borrow^ed costume, under this cloak, which is no part of itself, the insect, as it were, masked, has become twice its real size. What becomes of its disguise, and how does it manage to walk? Of what use to it is this dirty and grotesque fancy dress?

THE INSECT WORLD.

96 Let US listen to De Geer. '' It walks as fast, when it likes, as other bugs; but generally its walk is slow, and it moves with measured steps. After having taken one step forward, it stops a while, and then takes another, leaving, at each movement, the opposite leg in repose; it goes on thus continually, step after step in succession, which gives it the appearance of walking as if by jerks, and in measure. It makes almost the same sort of movement with its antennae, which it moves also at intervals and by jerks. All these movements have a more singular appearance than it is possible for us to describe."'"' By means of this disguise, it can approach little animals, which become its prey, such as flies, spiders, bed bugs.

Fig. 72. — Pupa of Reduvius personatus, covered Fig. 73.— Pupa of Reduvius personatus, denuded with its cloak of dust (magnified). of its cloak of dust (magnified).

To see what a curious appearance the Reduvius presents, one should take off its borrowed costume. Then you will observe an entirely different animal, one which has nothing repulsive about it. With the exception of the hemelytra and wings, which it has not yet got, all its parts have the form which they are to have later, after the wings are developed.

Fig. 72 represents, from Charles de Geer's Memoir, the pupa of the Reduvius personatus covered with dust, and resembling a spider;

Fig. 73 the same insect cleaned, freed from the cloak of dust which served to disguise it.

The HydrometrcB (from i/'S«p, water, and ucToeTj/, to measure)

"Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes." Tome ui., p. 28^^. 410. Stockholm, 1773.

Fig. 72. — Pupa of Reduvius personatus, covered Fig. 73.— Pupa of Reduvius personatus, denuded with its cloak of dust (magnified). of its cloak of dust (magnified). . — Pupa of Reduvius personatus, covered Fig. 73.— Pupa of Reduvius personatus, d with its cloak of dust (magnified). of its cloak of dust (magnified).

HEMIPTERA,

have linear bodies. The head, which forms nearly the third of the entire length, is furnished with two long antennae, and armed with a thin, hair-like beak. The legs are long, and of equal length. The reader may have often seen the Hydro met ni stagnorum walking by jerks on the surface of the water (Fig, 74). The body and legs •are of a ferruginous colour, the hemelytra a dull brown, and the wings hyaline, or glassy, and slightly blackish. Geoffroy says that it resembles a long needle, and calls it the Needle Bug. The HydrocoriscE, or Water Bugs, have the antennae shorter Fig. 74. — Hydrometra stagnorum. than the head, or scarcely attaining to its length, and inserted and hidden under the eyes, which are in general of remarkable size. All these Hemiptera are aquatic and carnivorous. We will mention the two principal types, the JVepce, or Water Scorpions, and the Noionectce^ or Boatmen.

The Nepa cinerea (Fig. 75), which Geoffroy calls the Oval-bodied Water Scorpion, and which he also designates by the name of the Water Spider, is very common in the stagnant waters of ponds and ditches. Its body, oval, very flat, of an ashy colour, with red on the abdomen, is four-fifths of an inch long. The hemelytra are horizontal, coriaceous, and of a dirty grey colour. Its front legs, with short haunches, and very broad thighs, are terminated by strong pincers, which give to the insect a strong resemblance to the scorpion. It is by folding back the leg and the tarsus under the thigh, that the animal holds its prey, and sucks it with its rostrum or beak.

This rostrum is composed of three joints, and contains four pointed bristles. Two present on one side a sort of narrow sharp blade, and have teeth towards their base. Of the two others, the one is^a.thin smooth needle, the other is provided with Fig. 75.- Nepa cinerea. h^irs directed backwards and forwards.

It is with this rostrum, which resembles a case of surgical instruments, that the Nepa pierces and sucks little aquatic insects, not even sparing its own species. Its wound is painful to man, but not in the least dangerous. With its four hind legs the Nepa swims, but at a very slow pace. It generally drags itself along the bottom of th^

q8 THE INSECT WORLD.

water, on the mud, and does not avoid the hand put out to seize it. Its body is terminated by a tail, composed of two grooved threads, which, when appUed together, form a tube, capable of being moved from side to side. Through this canal it breathes the outer air; it puts the end of it out of the water, and the air enters it by inspiration. Some very small hairs, with which the interiors of the grooves are lined, interlace each other, and prevent the water from penetrating into the canal. It is probable that this same canal serves also for depositing the eggs. These last resemble small seeds, covered with points, and are buried in the stalks of aquatic plants.

Next to the NeJ)a comes the Ranatra^ with a cylindrical, elongated, linear body, with very long and very thin hind legs, and of which one species, which Geoffroy calls the "aquatic scorpion with an elongated body," is common everywhere in stagnant waters in spring. It is brownish, carnivorous, and very voracious. We must now mention the genus Corixa, of which one species, the Corixa striata^ is very common. This insect walks badly and slowly on land, but swims and cuts through the water with a prodigious rapidity (Fig. 76).

Fig. 76,— Corixa striata. However, it is not to delay over this last species that we have here mentioned the name of this genus. Some insects which belong to it, and which are found in Mexico, deserve to be alluded to, on account of certain peculiarities which their eggs present. A naturalist, M. Virlet d'Aoust, has published the following details on this subject:— " Thousands of small amphibious flies," he says, '' flit about in the air on the surface of lakes, and diving down into the water many feet, and even many fathoms, go to the bottom to lay their eggs, and only emerge from the water probably t-o die close by. We were fortunate enough to be present at a great fishing or harvest of the eggs, which, under the Mexican name of hautle {haout/e\ serve foi food to the Indians, who seem to be no less fond of them than the

Chinese are of their swallows' nests, which they resemble somewhal: in taste; only the hautle is far from commanding such high prices as the Chinese pay for their birds' nests, which for that reason are reserved entirely for the tables of the rich; while, for a few small i

coins, we were able to carry away with us about a bushel of the haiitle^ a portion of which, at our request, Mme. B was kind enough to prepare for us. " They dress these in different ways, but generally make a sort of cake, which is served up with a sauce, to which the Mexicans give a zest, as they do indeed to all their dishes, by adding to it chilie, which is composed of green pimento crushed. This is how the natives proceed when they are fishing for hautle: they form with reeds bent together a sort of fasces, which they place vertically in the lake at some distance from the bank, and as these are bound together by one of the reeds, the ends of which are so arranged as to form an indicating buoy, it is easy to draw them out at will. Twelve to fifteen days suffice for each reed in these fasces to be entirely covered with eggs, which they thus fish up by millions. The former are then left to dry in the sun, on a cloth, for an hour or more; the grains are then easily detached. After this operation, they are replaced in the water for the next hautle harvest."

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