444 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fl(i. ]. AiMKHlCAN BeLDSTOMA. 



brown in color, with leathery wings overlapping each other on its 

 back ; thick legs, along the sides of which are fringes for swim- 

 ming ; and a flat, boat-shaped body which offers little resistance 

 to the water. 



The eggs of the American belostoma are deposited on pieces 

 of wood or reeds along the margins of ponds, apparently where 



they will be wet but not directly 

 in the water. They are laid in 

 clusters of from forty to sixty or 

 more in each. The eggs them- 

 selves are about one fifth of an 

 inch long, oblong-ovate in form, 

 with the general color brown 

 spotted with black ; they are light- 

 er colored below than above, and 

 there is a whitish crescent near the 

 top with a distinct black spot in 

 its apex. This crescent indicates 

 the margins of a little cap which 

 conies off when the young bugs 

 hatch. 



Little seems to be known con- 

 cerning the early history of these 

 They probably crawl into the water soon after hatching, 

 and live upon such aquatic insects as they are able to catch. I 

 do not know just how fast they grow, but presume they become 

 full grown in a year. During the earlier period of their exist- 

 ence they have no wings ; they are then in what the naturalists 

 call the nymph state. Their appearance just before they become 

 adult is represented in Fig. 2. It will be seen that they have no 

 wings, but otherwise they very much re- 

 semble the full-grown bugs. Finally, the 

 skin splits open along the middle of the 

 back, and the insect crawls out of its old 

 skin clothed in a new one which is pro- 

 vided with wings. It now for the first 

 time can leave the pond where it has de- 

 veloped, and fly away to otlier bodies of 

 water. 



If the front leg of a full-grown Ameri- 

 can belostoma be examined carefully, there 

 will be found on the front margin of the 



long joint nearest the body a longitudinal groove for the reception 

 of the next joint. By this character the present species can al- 

 ways be distinguished from the other one, in which there is no 

 groove. This latter insect is called Belostoma griseus. It is usu- 



bugs 



IjAst Stack ok 



NVMPII. 



