ua [March, 



" The Biology and Ecology of Aquatic amd Semi-aquatic Hemi- 



PTSRA, AND THE MaLE GENITALIA AS ChaKACTEES OE SPECIFIC VALUE IN 



CERTAIN diiYPTOCERATA." By H. B, IIuNGEBFOHD. Kansas University 

 Science Bulletin, December 1919. 



Though this publication bears date December 1919, it has only quite ; 



recently come into our hands. Let us say at once that we heartily \velc(inie it 

 as a most interesting and useful compendium, not only for Americans, but for 

 Hemipterists of the Old World as well, for the genera of these bugs are pretty 

 much the same iu both hemispheres. Three distinct types of country with 

 varying water conditions were investigated and are here passed in review — 

 East Kansas with its muddy pools, West Kansas with its sluggish and inter- 

 mittent streams, "slender threads of silver wending their way through wide 

 strips of sand, margined by shallow banks," and the central part of New York 

 State, where, especially iu the neighbourhood of Itliaca, one meets with 

 '' a wealth of water types," from the " rushing, tumbling waters of the brook to k 



the dark, acrid, sluggisli streams of the upland bog ; from spring-fed pools :- 



to lake conditions." The families described are the Saldidae, OcJdheridac, and 

 Gelastocoridae {Peht/onidae and Mononychidae) , Hehridae, Veliidae, Mesoveliidac, 

 Hydrometridae , Gerridae, and the various families of tlie CryptQcerata. Full 

 descriptions of the various species are given, and biological notes are added 

 wherever possible, while life-histories, more or less complete, are described of 

 at least one species in each of the principal genera. Of these the most welcome, 

 as supplying the greatest amount of new matter, are those of >Salda, Ilebnis, 

 and Plea ; the eggs of the Salda were found beneath the slieaths of shore- '\ 



"■rasses, those of the Hehrus between the leaves of Si)]uigmn», and those (if the ;, 



P/ea in the tissues of J?/of/(>r( and Chara. Three excellent coloured plates are -1 



included and 32 plain ones, the latter containing photographs of the habitats '• 



of some species and sketches of eggs, larvae, and adults, anatomical details, j 



etc. The author calls attention to the importance of the various species of v 



Entoraostraca, and especially of Ostracoda, as food for many of these insects ; f 



on the other hand, he contends that the Corixidae are largely vegetarians, 

 subsisting upon small Algae such as Spiroyyra, Desniids, etc., which they « 



sweep up to the mouth by means of their " palae." The oviposition of '1 



Mesovelia is well described, and is seen to be df the same character as J 



Dr. Chapman has shown that of Nabis lativentris to be. Pai'ticulars are given 

 of the conveyance of the eggs of Halohates from place to place on the feathers 

 of sea-birds. Mr. Hungerford has made a study of the genitalia in the genus 

 Notonecta, and hopes, contrary to Kirkaldy's expectations, to be able to make 

 use of them for purposes of specific determination. A good bibliography is 

 appended. There are a few typographical errors, especially in the German 

 quotations, and the descriptions of plates 27 and 28 are transpos^d. — E. A. B. 



Herbert Henry Corbetf. — Entomologists, and the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union in particular, have sustained a severe loss in the death of Dr. II. H. 

 Corbett, of Doncaster, which occurred, following an operation on January 5th 

 last, in his 65th year. So recently as December 4th he liad been elected to 

 the Presidential Chair of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, which had given 



