30 RHYNCOTA. 



on." It is very common in ditches and ponds, where 

 it crawls slowly in the mud. It is of a long oval-shape 

 and thin, looking like a decayed leaf more than an 

 animal. Nepa is as black as he is painted, being a 

 ravenous destroyer of various larvae of other insects, 

 which he seizes with his nippers, when he has stealthily 

 succeeded in getting sufficiently near his victim ; but 

 he seems so flat, one can hardly guess where he has 

 room to stow away much food I But it must be 

 remembered that Nepa, like the Rhyncota generally, 

 only sucks the juices of his victims, and does not 

 consume their carcases. But though he looks so grimy 

 outside, if you will open his wing-covers you will see 

 the upper part of the abdomen is prettily marked with 

 a bright brick-red colour. The bristle-like filaments 

 are perfectly harmless instruments, in no way resembling 

 a sting in function ; the insects extend them out of 

 the water, and the air is by them conducted to the 

 spiracles and tracheae. The Water-Scorpions' eggs are 

 of singular form ; they are oval and encircled at the 

 base with seven long filaments which bend backwards ; 

 when in the oviduct they seem to form a kind of a cup 

 for the reception of the succeeding ^gg ; these eggs have 

 appropriately been compared to little shuttle-cocks with 

 recurved feathers. I have often found them in the 

 ditches in the Weald Moors here where the Water- 

 Scorpion is exceedingly common. There is no meta- 

 morphosis in the Nepidae ; the young larva? being like 

 their parents, except that the tail filaments are repre- 

 presented in the larvae by a single short point. Nepa, 

 like tlie rest of the family, can leave the water and take 

 to flight, but I have never seen it on the wing. Tliere 



