174 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS [Apr., '17 



The Egg Laying Habits of a Back-swimmer (Hem.)t 



Buenoa margaritacea Bueno, and other biological notes con- 

 cerning it. 



By H. B. HUNGERFORD, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York. 



(Plate XIII) 



After having read in the text-books on entomology that the 

 eggs of back-swimmers are inserted in the stems of aquatic 

 plants, it was a matter of some surprise to the writer when 

 he was informed that such was not the case with those ob- 

 served in America. In looking up the literature he very short- 

 ly discovered that the basis for the statement found in our 

 texts was the fact that Notonecta glauca, common in France, 

 was said by Regimbart (1874) to place its eggs in the "twigs 

 and petioles of plants." In a paper entitled "Observations sur 

 la Ponte du Dytiscus marginalis et de Quelques Autres In- 

 sectes Aquatiques," among the other aquatic insects he de- 

 scribes briefly the egg-laying habits of N. glauca and presents 

 a figure of a stem containing the egg in situ, the cephalic end 

 protruding from the stem. 



This article, though not the first to mention the method of 

 oviposition of Notonecta glauca, has been widely quoted. An 

 examination of the earlier literature will disclose the fact that 

 the species N. glauca must also sometimes glue its eggs to the 

 stems of water plants. The diversity of statements regarding 

 the habits in question is best shown by a review of the Bibli- 

 ography at end of this paper, wherein are added quotations 

 from some of the various texts from Roesel (1746) to the 

 present time. 



In 1896 Kirkaldy exhibited the ova of Notonecta glanca var. 

 urcata before the Entomological Society of London and, after 

 quoting Regimbart, made the following remarks : "The speci- 

 mens before you, owing probably to the absence of rushes 

 (Juncus) in the vessel, although Anacharis, which one would 

 have fhought suitable, was in abundance, are entirely external, 

 affixed basally to the stalk by a glutinous substance, as in the 

 allied Corixidae. That this basal fixation is not usual is evi- 

 dent from the fact that the ova are but feebly adherent, drop- 



