334 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XIX. 



T-shaped chitinous rib. ■' This " head " projects slightly from the hatched- 

 out egg (Plate I, fig. 2.) Often the " lids " drop away entirely after hatching 

 which ensues in about five days after deposition, the nymphs moulting five times 

 (including the final moult to adult) at intervals of about three days, except that 

 the first nymphal instar lasts about five days. The whole nymphal period is about 

 seventeen days, that from laying of egg to emergence of adult about twenty- 

 three. PI. C, fig. 2 shows the nymph of the first instar newly hatched. The 

 antennae are composed of four segments, the tarsi of two, while the labium 

 reaches to about the hind coxae. The nymphs of the second and third instars 

 scarcely differ from that of the first, except in size and that the dark-brown 

 parts are very nearly black, with a blue gloss. In all three instars the under- 

 side is black as regards the head and thorax, the abdomen red with the 

 pleurites black. After each moult, the nymph, for about half an hour, is en- 

 tirely pale-red or pink (PI. C, fig. 5). In the fourth instar the tegmina are fairly 

 distinct ; in this and still more in the fifth, the antennae are more elongate 

 and slender, as also the legs. 



In the adult bug the antennae have gained a segment and the tarsi also 

 one ; immediately after moulting it is entirely pale shining pink ; about half 

 an hour later it is yellow-brown and an hour later (altogether one hour and 

 a half) it has gained its metallic blue colour (PI. C, fig. 6). 



In all stages, the bugs are very active, except that as usual, from the time 

 of hatching till after the first moult, they cluster motionless round the egg- 

 shells and take no food *. They are partly gregarious, or at least occiu" in 

 numbers where their prey is abundant. 

 The following is a summary' of a bug bred during May : — 

 Pair in cop. 4 May 1908 



9 laid eggs 5 



Hatched 11 



Fifth „ (to adult) 28 

 The very young nymphs feed on the eggs of the Chrysomelid beetle 

 (Haltica), the other instars on its larvae. The adult bugs feed usually on the 

 adult beetles, apparently on this particular beetle only, at least in the Macao 



'■" For accounts of the hatching-apparatus in Cimicidse. cf. Fabre, 1903, Souvenirs Entom 

 VIII., Chap. 5 ; and Heymons, 1906 Zeitschr Wissensch. Insektenbiol, 11., 73-82 



■* Kirby (1894 Allen s Nat. Library, Lep. I., p. XXVI) cites Scudder regarding the fact 

 that the Lepidopterous larva makes its first meal off its empty egg-shell to the effect 

 that " it is designed to prevent the empty egg-ahell from acting as an indication of the 

 newly-hatched larva to insectivorous birds &c.," but value of this suggestion is lessened by 

 the fact that the newly hatched bug nymph is equally exposed to similar danger, and is 

 incapable of making a meal off its egg-shell. 



