46 HEMIPTERA. 



Brasil ; and Fabricius, America generally. Donovan observed a slight difference between 

 the Chinese specimen and the figures in preceding works referred to by Fabricius ; but 

 he nevertheless gave it as the Nepa Grandis of Fabricius, on the authority of the collection 

 of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks, Bart. The Asiatic species are, however, now re- 

 garded as specifically distinct from those of America, and hence I have given this doubt- 

 ingly as the B. indica of Saint Fargeau. 



BELOSTOMA (SPH^RODEMA) RUSTICA. 



Plate 19. fig. 1. 



Cii. Sp. B. rotundata, ecaudata, fusca, thoracis elytronimque margine antico albido. Long. 

 Corp. lin. 7|. 

 B. round, without a tail, brown, with the margin of the elytra and the front of the 

 thorax pale. Length of the body 7| lines. 



Syn. Nepa rustica, Fabr. Ent. Syst. 4. 62. 3. (Exclus. syn. Enc. Meth. X. p. 273. et 



Laporte Revis. Hemipt. p. 18. Diplonychus rusticus.) Laporte op. cif. p. 83. 

 Nepa plana, Sulz. Hist. Ins. t. 10./. 2. Sloll Cim. 2. t. 1 . f. 6. 



Insects in general discover an extraordinary degree of care and ingenuity in depositing 

 their eggs in the most secure situations, or places where the infant brood, when hatched, 

 may be provided with proper sustenance. Those of the aquatic kind usually lay them 

 in recesses in the mud or sand, or under loose stones that lie at the bottom of the water : 

 others, with as much care, and more ingenuity, hollow out the interior substance of the 

 large stalks of water plants, and deposit their eggs in them ; or, rising out of the water, 

 lay them in the extreme branches of those plants, to secure them from other aquatic 

 depredators. Belostoma rustica displays even more sagacit}^ or attachment for its eggs, 

 than those creatures ; for it never leaves them. Till they are hatched, it bears them on 

 its back, in a cluster of an oval shape ; these eggs are of an oblong form, and are fastened 

 by the narrowest end to a thin film, or plate of cement, that causes them to adhere to the 

 polished surface of the wing cases ; when these eggs, about a hundred in number, are 

 hatched, it casts off the exuviae of the cluster, and differs no longer in general appearance 

 from the male of the same species. 



Our figures represent the situation of the eggs on the back, and the insect also after 

 they are cast off. It is not commonly received with the eggs upon it. Found on the 

 coast of Coromandel. as well as China. 



