Class I. Hexapoda. 



Order IX, HEMIPTERA. 



THE GENUS NOTONECTA IN AMERICA NORTH 

 OF MEXICO. 



By J. R. de la Torre Bueno, 



New York, N. Y. 



(Plate VII.) 



The Notonectidce are one of the most interesting and, as far as color- 

 ation goes, handsomest families of the Cryptocerate Hemiptera, while 

 the genus of which I treat is certainly the most brilliant in hues, 

 nearly every species being of some striking color. But, as I have 

 pointed out on other occasions,* these are much neglected groups, 

 and while some little work has been done in Europe in past times by 

 the great masters F. X. Fieber, G. Mayr, Leon Dufour and others, 

 and of late years by their learned successors, George W. Kirkaldy and 

 Prof. A. L. Montandon, specialists in these families, in America 

 nothing has been produced to compare with their work, save, perhaps, 

 by Prof. Uhler, who is easily the premier American Hemipterist. 

 Yet even he has taken up these neglected groups only as they came 

 within the general scope of his specialty. The other Heteroptera are 

 studied with greater or less closeness in proportion as they are hurtful 

 or harmless, and most of them receive the special attention of the 

 economic entomologist, but the aquatic forms are little collected and 

 still less studied. Nevertheless, there is an economic aspect to these 

 groups. Being predaceous, they are useful or harmful according to 

 their prey. The great water-bugs of the family Belostomidas are 

 stated by Uhler,y Howard J and others § to be harmful where pisci- 

 culture is practised, as they are destructive to young fish. May not 



* " Notonectidse of the Vicinity of New York," Journ. N. Y. Ent. Soc, X, 4, 

 1902. " Brief Notes toward the Life- History of Pelocoris femorata Pal. I!., with a 

 few remarks on habits," ibid., XI, 3, 1903. 



f Standard Natural History, II, p. 256. 



% Insect Book, p. 278. 



gProc. Ent. Soc. Wash., Ill, 2, pp. 87-88. 



143 



