THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST 45 



intervention availed nothing. One day I opened the box as usual, 

 and to my surprise found therein a small voracious grub which had 

 already devoured about half of the hapless Lycosid. I had carried 

 none of the wasp's nest material from the beach with the spider, 

 and although I am told that these wasps are not known to attach 

 the egg to the food supply, I can only suppose that in this case the 

 egg was in some way fastened to the victim, and when it hatched 

 out the grub began work at once on the food supply provided by 

 the marvellous instinct of its mother. Next day there remained 

 only the scattered legs of the spider, and a couple of days later, 

 the grub itself, pining for the "optimum" conditions of its sandy 

 nest, died also. 



INSECTS IN OCEAN DRIFT.* 

 I. Hemiptera Heteroptera. 



BY H. M. PARSHLEY, BUSSEY INSTITUTION, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 



Insects cast up by the waves are often found on the shores of 

 bodies of fresh and salt water, as is well known to most collectors. 

 Specimens found in this way are usually few and scattering, and 

 their presence in the water is probably due simply to an unusually 

 venturesome flight which may have carried them too far for a safe 

 return to land. On rare occasions, however, much more extensive 

 flights may occur, with the result that the shipwrecked are cast 

 ashore in unbelievable numbers, sometimes forming a windrow 

 for miles along the beach. This phenomenon is not to be explained 

 in connection with the spring and fall flights when the air seems 

 alive with insects on the wing, as it has been observed at various 

 other seasons, and for the same and other reasons such flights do 

 not appear to be nuptial in character. Sometimes a violent off- 

 shore wind has been held accountable for the presence of the in- 

 sects in the water, but this explanation will not fit the cas2s which 

 I have observed; in fact, no satisfactory hypothesis has been ad- 

 vanced as yet. As a knowledge of the species concerned is im- 

 portant in the explanation of insect activity, I append a list of the 

 Hemiptera Heteroptera which I have taken in ocean drift, leaving 

 the list of the other groups for a later paper. 



* Contributions from tha Entomological Laboratory of the Bjssey Institu- 

 tion, Harvard University, No. 123. 

 February, 1917 



