14 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



air, and so, flying from place to place, often betake them- 

 selves in quest of food to other waters. This is always their 

 course when the ditches in which they inhabit come to be 

 dried up. This affords us a satisfactory reason for the great 

 number of insects that immediately appear in the smallest 

 collections of water, since they may very well get thither when 

 it is dark, so that the opinion which ascribes to putrefaction, 

 the power of forming insects, must by this instance of the 

 water scorpion's nocturnal transmigration appear more and 

 more frivolous and unnecessary." 



Reaumur (1736) unfortunately did not write of water bugs, 

 and Linne (1746-58) busied himself with setting in order our 

 knowledge of natural history. Roesel (1746-1761) published 

 four volumes, well illustrated, and in his work gives some at- 

 tention to the water bugs. De Geer (1752) produced a seven- 

 volume work "Memoirs pour servir a I'histoire des Insectes." 

 A little later Geoffrey (1762) gave his "Histoire abregee des 

 Insectes." De Geer's ''Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der In- 

 sekten," 1778, contains some splendid wood cuts, and in Vol. 3, 

 considerable biological matter on water bugs. Oliver's work 

 appeared in 1782. Fabricius must be mentioned in passing, 

 because of his influence in the realm of the systematic. His 

 "Entomologia systematica" came out in 1794, and his "Sys- 

 tema Rhyngotorum" in 1803. The first five years of the 19th 

 century are memorable ones for students of the Hemiptera. 

 Walchenaer, 1802, published "Faune parisienne, Insectes, ou 

 histoire abregee des Insectes des environs de Paris, etc.," and 

 herein gives biological data on the aquatics. Tigny, 1802, pub- 

 lished a compilation and Latreille gave to the world his splen- 

 did set, "Histoire naturelle generale et particuliere des Crus- 

 taces et des Insectes." Again in 1807 there appeared another of 

 his works "Genera Crustaceorum et Insectorum secundum or- 

 dinen naturalem in familiar desposita inconibus exemplisque 

 plurimis explicata." About this time Wolff and Rossias pub- 

 lished less important works. Thus we find Fabricius, Latreille, 

 Walchenaer, Tigny, and lesser workers producing much work 

 from 1800 to 1805. Lamarck (1816) brought out another 

 large set on insects and other invertebrates. He called his 

 work "Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertebres . . ." 

 In volume 3 there are some splendid old matters concerning 

 water bugs, notes on progression and feeding. As is often 



