1022.] 155 



p. rvfpcs is an inliabitant of various trees, sucli as Qiiercvs, 

 Alnus, Crataerjus, Fraxinus, Betula, Fagns, Pop7ilus, Snlix, Ulmns, 

 Sorbiis aucuparia, but perhaps most commonly of oaks ; J. S^ahlberg 

 adds Ribes, and Prof. Carr reports it from flowers of Senecio jacohnea. 

 Morley records it from a seeding Angelica flower-head, and he also found 

 one on a dead hawk. Whittaker speaks of taking it by beating chest- 

 nuts, and Collins by beating Gorylus. If all these mean diet, the menu 

 is certainly a very varied one. But as an imago this species has for the 

 last century and a half been credited with carnivorous tastes. De Geer 

 saj'^s it wanders on the foliage of trees seeking caterpillars to suck, and 

 several observers since his time have confirmed this statement. Dalla 

 Torre speaks of the imago as a destroyer of aphides, and Gorski as 

 pursuing and destroying the caterpillars of the gipsy-moth. On the 

 other hand, Schumacher says he has often bred it, and has always found it 

 to be phytophagous. I have seen larvae in the second instar sucking a 

 sycamore leaf ; while doing this, the rostrum, which is very long, is 

 thrust far forward, and the body is inclined at an angle of about 30° to 

 the surface on which it is resting. Of course the diet may be different 

 at different stages of its life ; it may be vegetarian as a larva and carni- 

 vorous as an imago, or it may be absolutely indifferent, ready to accept 

 whatever turns up. The rostrum is long and slender, very unlike the 

 short and stout weapon of the admittedly carnivorous species Picromertis 

 hidens, and much better fitted to deal with unresisting vegetation than 

 with a struggling victim. At the same time it can, as McGregor says, 

 " inflict a painful probe with its powerful beak." On the whole, 

 therefore, we may say that the question of its food needs further 

 investigation. 



The odour from the scent glands is very powerful, and to the human 

 nostril, most disagreeable ; Frey Gessner compares it to that of rotten 

 apples, with a little muskiness. When the insect is weakened by fasting, 

 the smell is scarcely perceptible, and I have seen a larva in that condition 

 eaten by a carnivorous lepidopterous caterpillar, though one would suppose 

 it would have been safeguarded had it retained its odour. 



There is a certain malformation of antennae, to which the name 

 " oligomery " has been given, and this insect is one of those that 

 occasionally exhibit it. It is a defect which occurs most frequently and 

 characteristically amongst the Lygaeidae, and it is not at all common in 

 the Fentafomidae. In one instance the normal fourth joint was 

 suppressed but the third elongated ; hence the antenna, being 4- instead 

 of 5-jointed, preserved something of the larval structure, though with a 



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