THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 243 



The prothorax is mucli bent forward, and the anterior legs are bent back 

 over it just before the insect takes flight. The European J^. /mearis is 

 recorded as flying by night. ^ 



Rajiatra swims slowly, with an alternating motion of the second and 

 third i)air of legs."^ Uhler states* that R. fiisca may be seen resting at the 

 bottom, stilted on its long hind legs. I have not seen this myself. It also 

 creeps among the grasses. 



The food of Ranatra, I have found, consists of those unwary insects 

 that fall into the water. These it seizes in its raptorial anterior legs and 

 draws slowly to its beak, which moves and twists about, touching the prey 

 until a suitable place is found to penetrate with its lancets.^ 



The Ranatra linearis (of which the greater part of the literature 

 treats) is said to feed on the larva of Ephemerce.^ 



Rafiatra hibernates as an adult, and is sometimes found frozen in 

 the ice of ponds. It seeks some sheltered place under an overhanging 

 bank, or delves into the mud,' and there it lies torpid till the spring 

 comes, when it can be found all muddy and grown over with green algae. 

 I have taken it sluggish in early November from a hole under the bank of 

 a pond. As in most water-bugs it is parasitized by a species of 

 HydracJuia. Its stridulation has previously been noted, and is a peculiar 

 faculty. The coxal plate rasps can be seen in the earliest slages of the 

 nymph.* 



The peculiarities of the respiratory system of Nepa and Ranatra 

 have been the subject of a number of important studies. The chief of 

 these are, of course, Le'on Dufour's " Recherches anatomiques sur la 

 Rafiatra linearis et Nepa cinerea,'^^ and his masterly " Re'cherches 

 anatomiques et physiologiques sur les He'mipteres." These two works, 



_'. Amyot & Serville, Histoire Xaturelle des Insectes, Hemipteres, p. 443. 



3. Bueno, Entomological News. \'ol. X\'II, p. 3. Also noted by Westwood, 

 Introduction, \'ol. II, p. 462 ; and Schiodte, Ann. & Mag. X. H.? (4), \'ol. \'I, 

 p. 236. 



4. Standard Natural History, Vol. II, p. 254. 



5. Bueno, Canadian Entomologist, \'o1. XXX\', p. 236. 



6. Westwood, op. c, p. 461. 



7. Marshall and Severin. " Some points in the anatomy of Rafiatra fusca, P. 

 Beauv.," Tr. Wise. Acad. Sci., Arts & Letters, Vol. XIV^, pp. 487-508, Pis. 

 XXXIV-XXXVI. (See p. 487.) 



8. Canadian Entomologist, \'o1. XXX\', pp. 235-7, ^"<^ VoX. XXX\'II, 

 PP- 85-7. 



9. Ann. Gener. sc. phys. (Brussels), Vol. \'II, pp. 194-213 (1821). 



