THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 19 



before I could make out just where the noise came from, but I finally 

 succeeded in observing him in the act, and verified it many times after- 

 ward. That a song could emanate from so odd a source as the ventral 

 spiracles of a water-bug seemed ultra-natural, but there was no disputing 

 the facts. When engaged in his chirping, one had to look very closely 

 among the duck-weed to discover the spiracles, but once found, a 

 rhythmical contraction and relaxation could be distinctly noted with every 

 note of the song, which was produced much more slowly than that of our 



crickets. 



The breeding season of this creature at Watsonville, California, where 

 it is very abundant, is from April to June, and during this time from two 

 to four sets of eggs are hatched, and it is one of the most interesting 

 insects to study in all the domain of entomology. 



The female glues the eggs of the clutch tight and fast to the back of 

 the male, thereby sealing his wing-covers into a solid case, so that it is 

 impossible for him to fiy. Here they stay through the whole period of 

 incubation, unless by some accident their bearer is removed from the 

 water for some considerable time, when the whole mass of nidus and 

 eggs sheds off, and leaves the male free to fly once more to his wonted 

 element. 



In depositing the eggs, a translucent adhesive precedes the egg, 

 which is partly incased within it, adheres to and stiffens upon the wing- 

 sheath, holding the egg in a more or less perpendicular position upon the 

 back of the male. I would be glad to know the composition of this 

 mucilaginous adhesive, that will remain plastic at so low a temperature, 

 harden and remain tenaciously adherent in water. The eggs are deposited 

 one at a time, close together, and stand at all angles, from perpendicular 

 in the centre to a cant of forty-five degrees upon the outer edges of the 

 nidus. They are not all deposited at one time. Part of them will be 

 deposited one night and the rest the next night, or possibly it may be 

 several days before they are all deposited. The female will lay anywhere 

 from seventy to one hundred and seventy-five eggs upon the back of the 

 male, and strangest of all, every egg is right end up, so that in hatching 

 the young insect always escapes from the top of the egg. It very often 

 happens that some of the eggs prove to be unfertile, and whenever they 

 do, instead of remaining in the nidus in an addled condition until the others 

 hatch, they loosen, and are shed off from among the mass of fertile eggs, 



