26 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



Two other American species are found further north, the gre\- water-bug, ^ 

 with a range extending from Lower Canada to the West Indian Islands, and the 

 American water-bug,^ which is found over a great part of the United States. The 

 two are very similar, but the American has shorter and broader fore-legs with 

 a groove in the thigh, which is absent in the grey species. They both live in pools 

 and the estuaries of tidal waters, hiding among stones and rubbish, from which 



the}' dart rapidly to 

 attack any passing fishes 

 or frogs. The victim is 

 clasped by the bug's fore- 

 legs, and the deadly beak 

 plunged into the flesh. 

 This is not a case of taking 

 toll merely of the victim's 

 blood, as in the case of 

 many other sucking In- 

 sects ; it is speedily 

 followed by the death of 

 the bug's victim. This 

 appears to be due to a co- 

 pious supply of liquid from 

 around the base of the 

 beak, which finds its way 

 into the puncture. Locy 

 has traced this to a pair 

 of glands in the head of 

 the giant water-bug. Its 

 secretion, he says, "pro- 

 duces death very quickly 

 when introduced on a 

 needle-point into the bod\' 

 of an Insect." 



A species very like 

 the giant inhabits similar 

 situations in India and 

 China.^ Thouirh often 



Soldier "' SaCba Ant. 



[E. Step, F.L.S. 



In the iK'St of the leaf-cutters there are se\'eral distinct grades of workers, ranging from 

 very small to very large. The present photograph shows the largest of these, with very 

 large head anti jaws. It has been called a " soldier," but there does not appear to be any 

 justificatioii for thi- title. Magnified fonr times. 



confused 

 species, it may be distinguished by its pale yellowish colour, 

 inferior length — three and a-quarter inches. The colossus,* a 

 and Central America, is a darker and more heavilv-built Insect, 

 body coarsely wrinkled and granulated, and the fore-part 



with the former 

 and its rather 

 native of Cuba 

 with the fore- 

 crossed by a 



deep bent, depressed line. As is the case with the entire family of bugs, (here is 

 no caterpillar or grub stage. 



- P>. amcricana. 



* B. indica. 



■• B. colossicum. 



