March, 1910.] OlSEN : NOTES ON BREEDING HeMIPTERA. 41 



an average of 24 eggs per mass. A batch of youngsters in a separate 

 jar all died in about a day. This was apparently due to the lack 

 of vegetable food which they needed in the early stages, but possibly 

 the dry soil absorbed the moisture of the air too freely, as the jar 

 was lightly covered. Another jar continued to be well populated 

 with nymphs of all ages. The young thrived partly on vegetable 

 food but were also cannibalistic apparently in all stages. The first 

 imago appeared September 7, making a life cycle of about 30 days, 

 but others continued to appear until the eighteenth. No doubt indoor 

 breeding, with steady temperature and plenty of food, hastened 

 development. A newly matured bug deposited an egg mass on a 

 stem the next day. 



The food of this species is mainly if not almost entirely Lepi- 

 dopterous larvae. Mr. Franck observed on Staten Island a whole- 

 sale mortality of potato beetle larvje, with abdominal contents 

 sucked out by a bug, probably this species, but he took none home 

 for positive identification. Mr. Dow has observed Podisus niaaili- 

 ventris attacking beetles (Adalia bipunctata and Epitragiis ariindi- 

 nis). The beaks were thrust into the soft tissue between the thorax 

 and elytra and the beetles seemed to offer no resistance what- 

 soever. Mr. Wm. Davis reports this species with a small snout- 

 beetle on its beak. Prof. J- B. Smith mentions a Podisus with its 

 beak in the abdomen of a large carpenter ant (Camponotus). I have 

 observed maculiventris preying upon larvae of cabbage butterflies, 

 tussock moths, Alypia octoinaculata, and various noctuids and geom- 

 eters. In captivity, cannibalism destroyed almost my whole colony. 

 A nymph in the second or third instar attacked a much larger one 

 and almost succeeded in killing it. Another nymph attacked an 

 adult, but the latter escaped by superior mobility. They attack 

 their prey from behind, sometimes stalking their victim for a con- 

 siderable distance. When in a favorable position they thrust the 

 beak quickly and directly. I have seen them also assail Lepidopterous 

 larvae at the side of the last abdominal segment. At the first feeling 

 of the beak the caterpillar would sway from its position as rapidly 

 as possible. Master bug took advantage of this method of defence 

 by standing with extended beak and soon the caterpillar would impale 

 itself. Escape by flight was then impossible. I have observed a 

 caterpillar dragging along four nymphs of considerable size. I saw 



