THE OTTAWA NATURALIS 



• 



VOL. XXII. OTTAWA, MARCH, 1909 No. 12. 



NOTES ON A THREAD-LEGGED BUG. 



By H. F. Wickham, Iowa City, Iowa. 



In about twenty years collecting at Iowa City, I had never 

 met with a fully grown specimen of the wonderfully emaciated 

 insect that goes by the name of Eniesa longipes, De Geer. 

 Therefore was much rejoicing when my wife picked up one from 

 a somewhat dusty comer of the bedroom floor, at a time when 

 the house was undergoing repairs and subject to the passage 

 of many feet. For twelve months this remained a solitary 

 treasure, but in November of 1907 another was taken on a 

 window, and during the winter a third specimen was found dead 

 on a fly screen at the opposite end of the cellar. Suspicion 

 became strong that we were entertaining a colony unawares, 

 and future developments have fully justified this impression. 



Last September, on the second day of the month, a neighbor 

 living next door came to see me, bearing one of these curious 

 beasts, which he had found crawling on his clothes. While we 

 were seated on my porch discussing previous finds, I holding 

 this latest acquisition in my hand, he called my attention to 

 another crawling along my arm. "I wonder if they flv," he said, 

 but I replied that it seemed unlikely since the insect was so 

 ungainly and the wings so very small in proportion, the thoracic 

 segments showing none of the structure common to many 

 small-winged insects of good flight. Scarcely had I made out 

 my case, when another of the bugs came along, in full flight, 

 only two or three feet in front of our faces and alighted on one 

 of the pillars where it was easily caught. This gave me plenty 

 of specimens for cabinet purposes and for class demonstration, 

 so when still another female came to hand I put her in a box 

 where she would have plenty of room to run, if she so desired, 

 and waited to see what would happen. Running, however, was 

 not her forte, she preferred to stand, rocking up and down on 

 her long threadlike middle and hind legs, holding the shorter 

 raptorial front pair, with the tibiae folded back, out in front of 

 her, and any urging only forced her into a slow walk. She ate 



