- Hemipterous Insects, 259: 



The following day, I was about to commence my operations, 

 and was not a little surprised to find it alive ; and, on restor- 

 ing it to the water, it swam away as merrily as ever : it having, 

 like spiders and many other insects, feigned death. Their 

 position in the water is on the back [?idtos, the back ; nekies, a 

 swimmer] ; and, by means of their oars, they cut along and 

 through the water with surprising rapidity. By occasionally 

 changing the water, and always keeping the fragment of a 

 leaf (a water-lily leaf is the best, because it is porous and will 

 float) on the surface, they may be kept for a long time in this 

 confinement. They usually keep by the edge of the leaf; 

 and, whenever a fly or any other small insect falls or is thrown 

 on the water, one or other of them will seize it in an instant ; 

 clasping it with its legs, and sucking its juices through the 

 proboscis, which, when not feeding, lies along the thorax. 

 Though not so voracious as the large water beetle (Dytiscus 

 marginalis), which, as Mr. Knapp says, " riots the Polyphe- 

 mus of the pool," they are bold and greedy, and will attack 

 both spiders and earwigs, and devour several of them in quick 

 succession. The oars (if they may be so called) of this insect 

 are admirably adapted to its mode of life while in the water ; 

 but, when they have occasion to change the element, they 

 apparently are greatly embarrassed with them from their 

 length, which causes them to walk in an awkward and ridi- 

 culous manner ; and their progress is, consequently, slow and 

 laboured. Where and when they deposit their eggs, or how 

 long they remain in their larva state, I have not been able to 

 observe, nor to find recorded, anywhere. The only mention 

 of the insect that I can find in Mr. Rennie's three volumes on 

 insects, in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, is the brief 

 one in Insect Miscellanies, p. 187. (erroneously referred to in 

 the index as "p. 178."): — "Ray tells us that his friend 

 Willughby had suffered severe temporary pain, in the same 

 way [that is, from the sting], from a water bug (Notonecta 

 glauca Lin.). — Hist, Insect., p. 58." As Ray's entire de- 

 scription is very short, and admirably accurate, I beg to give 

 it : — " Unciae f longa est ; elytra fusca sunt ; scapulae vi- 

 rescunt ; posterius par pedum valde longum remorum instar ; 

 antennis caret ; proboscis brevis est, qua in cutem intrusa 

 acerrimum dolorem excitat qui tamen brevi cessat." A figure, 

 beautifully drawn and coloured, is given in the first volume, 

 pi. 10., of Curtis's British Entomology, — O, Clapton, Feb.^ 

 1833. 



A Notice of the Eggs of the Glaucous Boatfy (Notonecta 

 glaiica ; a7id Facts on Species of T>ytiscus. — On the 26th of 

 Februarv, 1832, I put into a basin, filled with mixed marsh 



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