354 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



Demerara, where it lurks ou the bottom of the muddy pools which match 

 its color, ever ready to grasp the uuwary fish in the cruel embrace of 

 its sharp hooked fore-legs, there to remain fixed until life becomes ex- 

 tinct with the outflow of its blood." This author adds: "Scarcely less 

 rapacious are the species inhabiting the United States. One of these, 

 B. grisea, is the fiicilc master of the ponds and estuaries of the tidal 

 creeks and rivers of the Atlantic States. Developing in the quiet pools, 

 secreting itself beneath stones or rubbish, it watches the approach of a 

 Fomotis, mud-minnow, frog, or other small-sized tenant of the water, when 

 it darts with sudden rapidity u^wn its unprepared victim, grasps the 

 creature with its strong, clasping fore-legs, plunges its deadly beak deep 

 into the flesh, and proceeds with the utmost coolness to leisurely suck 

 its blood. A copious supply of saliva is poured into the wound, and 

 no doubt aids in producing the paralysis w'hich so speedily follows its 

 puncture in small creatures." 



Of easily accessible articles in which the habits and fish-eating pro- 

 pensities of aquatic hemiptera are noticed, probably the most interest- 

 ing, on account of its popular, simjile style and because it deals with 

 Anjerican insects, is the paper by Glover" in the Eeport of the U. S. 

 Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1875. This paper is entitled 

 " Heteroptera, or Plant-Bugs," but deals with many bugs that either 

 suck the juices from plants or animals, or that are entirely rapacious, as 

 are most water-bugs, depending for their nutriment entirely on the blood 

 of other animals. 



The rapid extension of fish-culture has called attention to the attacks 

 made upon fishes by their enemies. It is quite likely that the require- 

 ments of fish-culture itself, such, for examide, as associating together 

 in the same pond large numbers of fishes of about the same size, has 

 furnished conditions that have permitted the increase of the actual 

 number of the hemiptera that prey upon them. The abundance of food 

 for water-bugs in a pond stocked with small fishes oidy, and the absence 

 of larger fishes to devour the bugs while the latter are still quite young, 

 may both contribute to the welfare and increase of the bugs. 



That the loss of fish due to these insects is considerable seems quite 

 l)robable, because, notwitlistamling their secluded habits, tliey are not 

 rarely to be seen about ponds, sometimes even in the act of taking 

 fishes. The following (luotation from a letter from Mr. E. A. Brackett, 

 of Winchester, Mass., chairman of the commissioners on inland fish- 

 eries for Massachusetts, under date of December 10, 188G, will illustrate 

 this fact. He writes : 



" In October last, while drawing off the carp pond, the water became 

 very roily, and I noticed several young carp moving on the surface, 

 sidewise, cvidentl.y propelled by some external force. With a dij)-net 

 I took these young fish out, and found that in every case they were 

 firndy held by a water-bug. Tlie lish were dead, and the bugs appar- 



