160 PREDACIOUS AND PARASITIC 



J. W. Douglas, in the Ento. Monthly Mag. for Oct., 1895, gives so 

 exact a description of the attack that I venture to transcribe it : — 



" Capstis lanarius feeding. — This species, like all other Cap- 

 sidcE, is credited with being a feeder on the juices of leaves, and I 

 was therefore somewhat surprised yesterday to see one individual 

 that was not a vegetarian. On the flower umbels of a Heracleum, 

 the stems of which were literally covered by the larvae of a pale- 

 green aphid, the Capsiis stood motionless, rostrum exerted and 

 arched, the tip in the body of one of the aphids, and so gently 

 inserted (after the manner in which Isaac Walton advises a hook 

 to be passed into a worm), that there was no resistance by the 

 victim. If this was the beginning of a feast, there was an abun- 

 dant supply of the delicacy to continue the revel, which in the 

 nature of things could not last long." Mr. Douglas also gives some 

 later observations of the same fact, and it may be considered to 

 be established beyond question that this particular Capsid at least 

 enjoys a carnivorous diet. 



In the spring of 1895 I ^'^^ fortunate enough to secure a spe- 

 cimen of C. lanarius (larva) attacking an aphis, and after watching 

 it turn suddenly over the edge of the leaf and insert its rostrum 

 into the victim I removed the fragment of leaf, and mounted it at 

 once in a deep cell with the two insects still in situ., and the beak 

 of the capsid plunged deeply into the abdomen of the pear aphis 

 before it. The insects, as taken, are shown in the central figure 

 of Plate VIII. 



Before proceeding to examine these insects in detail, it will be 

 desirable to show their position in systematic classification instead 

 of, as in previous groups, leaving this until the last section. My 

 object in so doing is to enable readers who have not made a special 

 study of the order to realise the relations of the species which 

 will be investigated. 



The following synopsis of the Insecta, with especial reference 

 to those groups which are nearest to the Homoptera-Heteroptera, 

 will be useful in this direction : — 



