JOURNAL' 



OF THE 



JOfId ]OoFh €jnkniQlQgiraI Horblg. 



Vol. XXV. MARCH, 1917. No. 1. 



FOOD HABITS OF CORIXIDS. 



By H. B. Hungerford, 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



In the literature dealing with Aquatic Hemiptera, we are informed 

 that there are some ten or eleven families of the higher Heteroptera^ 

 that dwell in or upon the water, where they maintain themselves by 

 preying upon other living forms. An examination of the external 

 structure of the majority of them substantiates this view. For whether 

 we examine the slender Hydrometra that stalks its prey upon the 

 water, or the Naucorid that lies in wait in the tangled vegetation of 

 the pool, we find a sharp beak, and, in the latter case, rapacious fore- 

 legs. These are the two extremes to be sure. The foreleg of Hy- 

 drometra is but slightly modified if at all, but the beak is sharp and the 

 stylets, though flexible, are strongly and retrorsely barbed- ; while 

 the foreleg of the Naucorid is greatly modified into a most efficient 

 grasping device (Plate II, figs. 3 and 6). 



There is, however, one large family of water bugs whose exter- 

 nal equipment is strikingly peculiar and whose front legs, if used for 



1 See Bibliography references (7), (8) and (9). 

 2 Mr. J. R. De la Torre Bueno has reared these upon flies and like forms 

 which he dropped upon the surface of the water. I have observed them 

 catching larvae and pupae of mosquitoes as they were taking air at the surface 

 film. And I have also watched them capture young members of their own 

 species, small midges, and plant lice, but in none of these operations were the 

 forelegs involved in the retention of the prey, the barbed stylets being able to 

 retain even large and active wrigglers. 



1 



