238 Nerve- winged Insects; Scorpion-flies; Caddis-flies 



dropped a few at a time during the adult life. So far as observed, 

 egg-laying consists simply of extruding the eggs and letting them drop at 

 random. 



The habits of the curious wingless species, Bittacus apterus, common 

 in California, have been observed by Miss Rose Patterson, a student of 

 Stanford University. These long-legged, thin-bodied creatures are not 

 readily distinguished among the drying grass-blades where they live, because 

 the color of the body is almost exactly like the yellowish tan of the plants. 

 Miss Patterson went into the field one windy day when clouds were scudding 

 over the sky. At first not a scorpion-fly was to be seen; then, in a brief 

 period of sunshine, one was seen swinging itself deliberately along from 

 one grass-blade to another. When the wind blew hard it either held firmly 

 to the weeds or dropped down to the ground for protection. Finally it took 

 up its position near a flower-cluster and clung by all its tarsi. When a bee- 

 fly came passing that way it immediately freed two of its legs and held them 

 out in an attitude of expectancy. When the fly had passed it remained 

 in that position for a minute or so and then relaxed into what seemed a more 

 comfortable attitude, holding on by all tarsi. As it became cloudy again, 

 the insect dropped down among the weeds and remained near the ground, 

 its legs resting on the grass-stems and its abdomen pointing almost directly 

 outwards. Miss Patterson disabled a small skipper butterfly and dropped 

 it near the Bittacus, but he seemed to pay no attention. A lady-bug did 

 not arouse him. A fly passed over and still he did not move. She touched 

 him with a pencil-point and he drew back and began to feign sleep. When 

 she continued to disturb him he showed an inclination to fight, but did not 

 leave his shelter until she forced him to do so by repeated pokes with the 

 pencil-point. Then he ran nimbly to the top of a blade of grass and hung 

 there: his tarsi went scarcely around the leaves. He remained in that posi- 

 tion, motionless, until a bird twittered overhead; then he promptly found 

 a sheltered place in a drooping grass-leaf. 



Near him she discovered another scorpion-fly, with a crane-fly in its 

 clutches. The crane-fly was still alive and struggled feebly while the scor- 

 pion-fly sucked its blood. She disturbed them, but though the scorpion- 

 fly stopped its eating, it held its prey as before and moved slowly off with 

 it. The body of the crane-fly was almost cut in two by the grasping tarsi of 

 its enemy. 



Finding another of the queer creatures swinging on a weed, its four legs 

 held out hungrily, she gave it a crane-fly, which it grasped firmly, winding 

 the tarsi around its body. The crane-fly struggled, but its captor soon had 

 its head buried almost to the eyes in its body. Finally the mangled crane- 

 fly gave out. She caught another crane-fly and held it out to the scorpion- 

 fly, which thereupon grasped its first victim firmly in one of its hind tarsi 



