hungerford: aquatic hemiptera. 79 



Saldoida cornuta Osborn 1901. 



Osborn, Can. Ent., XXXIII, p. 181, 1901. 



"Hind angles of pronotum produced into conspicuous horns. Black, 

 marked with brown. Female, length 2.5 mm.; width at humeri, 0.75 mm. 



"Vertex and front minutely gibbous, sparsely set with short appressed 

 hairs; ocelli minute, approximate; antennae with joints one, two and four 

 nearly equal in length, joint three about one-half longer, and much 

 swollen, fourth less swollen ; rostrum about reaching hind coxae. Conical 

 tubercles of the pronotum very slightly divergent, otherwise almost pre- 

 cisely like those of slossoni in shape ; the posterior lobe of pronotum very 

 short, posterior angles produced into prominent upturned horns, with a 

 blunt polished tip. Scutellum minutely roughened, becoming smooth at 

 apex, not inflated. Elytra subhyaline on costa, the membrane rather 

 coriaceous, with veins obsolete, apparently with three cells and rather 

 narrow margin. Wings aborted, unless accidentally broken off in this 

 specimen. 



"Colour: Vertex, front, third joint of antennae, prothorax except pos- 

 terior horns, scutellum, claval sutures and apex of corium, pectus and 

 base of last ventral segment, black; clypeus, rostrum, joints one, two 

 and four of antennae, posterior horns of pronotum, coxae and apices of 

 femora, reddish brown; a brown patch on disc of clavus and base of 

 corium, a whitish oblique spot on corium merging into the hyaline costa. 

 Membrane deeply inf uscated ; the first and fourth joints of antennae are 

 widely whitish, as also the hind coxae, base of femora and the apical two- 

 thirds of last ventral segment, the central part of which is transparent, 

 showing ovipositor clearly. 



"Described from one specimen (female) collected by Mrs. Slosson in 

 Florida." 



B. Biology of the Saldid^. 



General Habits of the Family. These agile btigs for the most part in- 

 habit damp soils about pools, along the margins of ponds and upon the 

 shores of fresh and salt waters. Kirkaldy says that one species is found 

 "far away from moisture on sandy commons or moors, under heather or 

 in sand pits." They are very lively creatures and difficult to capture. 

 When disturbed they leap from the ground, arise a few feet into the air 

 by the aid of their wings, and alight a short distance away. Uhler has 

 made a special study of these insects and tells us that when they alight 

 "they take care to slip quickly into the shade of some projecting tuft of 

 grass or clod where the soil agrees with the color of their bodies." Some 

 species dig holes for themselves, and live for a part of the time beneath 

 the ground, according to Uhler. This writer also compares the quick 

 short flights of the Saldids with those of the tiger beetles and notes that 

 Salda signoretii (now Pentacora signoretii) may be observed running 

 swiftly about over the damp surface of the sandy beaches of Maryland 

 in company with Ciciyidela dorsalis, searching for food and thrusting its 

 rostrum into drowned flies and other insects. Latreille, 1803, stated that 

 they probably fed upon aquatic insects, especially Diptera. 



Direct observations upon their feeding habits in nature are scant. 

 The writer has kept them in the laboratory upon a diet of dead flies, etc. 

 From their behavior, however, he believes they capture living insects 

 upon occasion. 



Their resemblance to their surroundings and their rapid, erratic move- 

 ments have enabled them to get on well in the world. As evidence of 



