146 Journal New York Entomological Society. [Vol. xiii. 



they occur in Massachusetts, New York, Maine, and the province of 

 Quebec in Canada. I trust these gaps will be filled before long. 



The habits, of the Notonectae are more or less well-known. They 

 are exceedingly active and fiercely predaceous, resembling nothing so 

 much as hawks among vertebrates. Their principal prey are such un- 

 fortunate insects as fall into the water within the ken of the watchful 

 waterbug, or such of the feebler aquatic insects they can overcome, not 

 disdaining their own young. From their position hanging back down 

 at or near the surface, nothing escapes them, and at the slightest 

 vibration imparted to the water by any struggling insect, or the least 

 motion of one swimming by, they wheel swiftly about and with one or 

 two powerful strokes of their long swimming legs, are on their prey 

 and have it seized in their strong raptorial first and second pair of 

 legs. They are strong and vigorous swimmers, and it is no great 

 effort for a Notonecta, to pull under water and swim away with a 

 struggling insect at least its own size, if not larger. I have, as before 

 noted, seen a young nymph swim away with a fish at least twice its 

 own size. Not all Notonectas hang from the surface constantly, how- 

 ever. Notonecta undulata does, and its raptorial claws can be seen 

 forming little elevations as it hangs head down, while N. insulata 

 seems to prefer to float in clear spaces in clean cold pools, about mid- 

 way between the bottom and surface. On the other hand, N. irrorata 

 and N'. uhleri appear to like to hide among the roots of plants grow- 

 ing at the water's edge, to which they cling. The former may at 

 other times also be seen floating below the surface in the shadow cast 

 by bank or fallen tree or broken branch. The habits of N. variabilis 

 differ somewhat from the others, since this bug prefers to lurk among 

 the water weeds at the bottom. 



The ovi position of Notonecta has thus far been always described 

 from Regimbart's paper* and the statement that the ova are buried in 

 the stem of a plant has been handed down from generation to genera- 

 tion of entomologists as a precious heirloom, without question and 

 without doubt. However, out of about 1,300 or 1,400 ova of four 

 or five species that I have seen, some deposited in my aquaria and 

 others taken in nature, I have thus far not found this so, save in the 

 instance of one N. undulata, which did indeed insert them quite 

 deeply in the stem of a water weed. All the others were simply 



* " Observations sur la Ponte du Dytiscus marginalU et de quelques autres Insec- 

 tes Aquatiques," Ann. Soc. Ent. Fr., 1875, P- 2 °4- 



