OBSERVATIONS ON YOUNG OF RANATRA QUADRIDENTATA 159 



water it is unable to support itself and wriggles about helplessly. 

 Its integument rapidly hardens, however, and in the course of a 

 few hours it is able to move around out of water as well as an 

 older individual. 



When first hatched the young are pale in color, but they soon 

 become much darker, many specimens becoming quite dark in 

 less than a day. 



The manner of walking, swimming, turning over when placed 

 on the back, and the attitudes assumed when resting at the sur- 

 face of the water, or in contact with objects below the surface, 

 are very nearly the same as in the mature insect. Soon after 

 hatching the young Ranatras take up a position at the surface 

 of the water with the tip of the breathing tube just projecting 

 through the surface film and the body inclined obliquely down- 

 ward. The second and third pairs of legs are held in a sprawled 

 out position, while the first pair is held in front, and bent upward 

 at the middle, with the claw held open. The position is one of 

 readiness for quickly seizing any small object that passes within 

 reach. Young Ranatras are remarkably active in the capture of 

 prey. Any small object that strikes the outstretched arms is 

 grabbed at with surprising quickness. If a small insect or crus- 

 tacean is seized, it is drawn towards the mouth, usually with the 

 assistance of the other arm, and the proboscis is moved about 

 over it in the endeavor to find a soft spot through which it can 

 penetrate. When this is found the juices of the body are grad- 

 ually sucked out and the rest of the prey rejected. Young Ran- 

 atras will seize and suck out almost any animal not of too large 

 size. I observed one not a day old deftly catch a small ostracod 

 that happened to swim against one of its outstretched arms. The 

 ostracod tightly closed the valves of its shell, but the Ranatra 

 turned it over and over, exploring all sides of it with the tip of 

 its proboscis and endeavoring in vain to force an entrance between 

 the valves. After the round smooth ostracod was rolled about 

 for several minutes it slipped from the grasp of its captor and 

 swam away. 



Ranatras may readily be fed by seizing a small organism in a 

 pair of pincers and carefully bringing it up to them. Animals as 

 large as themselves are successfully coped with. Large Hyalcl- 



