333 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES (►N ORIENTAL IIEMIPTERA. No. 3. 



I'.V 



J. C. W. Kl'.USllAW AM) U. W. KlIJK \i.i>>-. 



{With Plates C and 1.) 



Papei-s on the metamorphoses of Atitestia anchorago, Dindymus saiiguinena 

 and Canocoris mar<]/natus have already been hiid before the Society. We now 

 otter notes on the History of Zicrona ccurulea, a small, metallic-looking bug 

 belonging to the Sub -family Cimicinaj of the Family Cimicidae.^ 



Zicrona cccrulea is distributed over the whole of the Pala;arctic and Oriental 

 Regions (except that it has apparently not yet been recorded from the Cana- 

 ries, Madeira or Ceylon), and over North America. It thus ranges over 70° of 

 latitude and 320° of longitude — for it is almost certain that its entry into 

 America was made via Behring's Straits — that is to say, from the Arctic Circle 

 to the Equator and from one shore of the Atlantic Ocean around the world 

 to the other shore. 



This remarkable insect has been reported from such varied " foodplants" as 

 Adimonia caprecu, Betula alba and nana, Calluna, Euphorbia, Glycyrrhiza, Juni- 

 perus, Mentha hirsuta, liubus, Thesiuni ramosum and Grasses ! ihe explanation 

 of this catholicity in taste being that it is carnivorous — like most if not all, of 

 the Cimicina;. though they do not always disdain vegetable nourishment — and 

 thus, free, like most carnivora, to wander in pursuit of its prey. 



As an adult the bug is, typically, steel-blue, or somewhat darker, or bluish- 

 green — with black antennce and smoky membrane. It varies to dark coppery 

 (an American form) or violaceous. It measures from 6-10 mill, in length (PI. 

 C, f. 6). 



The observations, now related, were made at Macao, off South China, the 

 individuals investigated belonging to Zicrona illustris, Amyot and Serville, which 

 is scarcely to Vje ranked even as a colour variety of Z. cccndea, being merely 

 larger and a little bluer. They were taken in fair numbers about the end of 

 April (1907) on low vegetation in marshy localities, which it frequents for the 

 sake of its food — a small beetle of the family ChrysomelidaB -, which is exactly 

 the same shiny dark- blue as the bug (Plate 1, fig. 1). 



The eggs were laid at the beginning of May on grass-stalks and any low 

 growing plants, in batches of about a dozen, not more, and were practically 

 contiguous. They were shining dark-brown, smooth, with a ring of seventeen 

 slender processes around the "lid"; the processes were whitish, the extreme 

 apices blackish (PI. C. f. L). Within the egg, just under the lid. there is 

 a separate membranous strip with a shallow spoonlike head, strengthened by a 



' For family and other nomenclature, c/'. Kirkaldy, 1908, " Catalogus Hemipieronim " 

 I. (Dames, Berlin). 



- Through the intervention of Dr. L. O. Howard, it was kindly identified by Mr. E. A. 

 Schwraz as a species of Haltica answering to the description of H. coenilca, Olivier, which 

 inhabits India, Indo-China and Ceylon. 



