Vol. XXviii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 269 



of circumstances than most of the others. The writer has 

 taken it in clear spring-fed pools in New York and in 'the 

 stagnant scum-covered waters of muddy ponds in Kansas. 

 Uhler (1876) says "it inhabits the foulest pools, in dirty slush 

 and slimy ponds it revels in full enjoyment of the filth." 



Barber (1913), in a popular paper on Aquatic Hemiptera, 

 makes a similar reference to its habitat. Thus it may be noted 

 to be less sensitive than many others of its genus to its en- 

 vironment. When the small bodies of water recede during the 

 prolonged period of dry weather, which we sometimes have in 

 late summer in Kansas, it is among the last to take wing to 

 more favorable situations, a fact which is not to be accounted 

 for on the basis of weak powers of flight, for it does on occa- 

 sion fly very well, as appears to have been noted for the Eur- 

 opean forms at an early date. Aldrovandus spoke of them 

 as amphibious bees and Swammerdam, at the close of his dis- 

 cussion of the Notonectac, a name applied to them by Mouffet, 

 1634, makes the following interesting remark in regard to 

 the migration of water bugs : "As all the insects hitherto 

 enumerated have wings, some of them flying in the daytime 

 and others at night, it is easy to conceive that they may be 

 very speedily generated in all standing waters." 



In the first warm days of spring, the writer has observed 

 them coming by the dozens and alighting in a small road-side 

 pool. Thus their range, which was restricted by the drouth 

 of the previous fall, was again extended to the many favor- 

 able pools of spring and early summer. There are several rec- 

 ords of Corixid migrations in this country but only one, so far 

 as the writer knows, for Notonccta. In September, 1846. 

 near the head waters of the Mississippi, S. G. Simpson report- 

 ed a swarm of "N. yla-nca" which extended over 25 or 35 

 miles. This species, if a Notonectid at all, was doubtless the 

 common N. undulata. 



FOOD AND FOOD HABITS. 



The predatory tendencies, and the daring attacks of these 

 insects upon other animals of formidable size have been known 

 from the first biological notes concerning them. Nearly every 



