172 Tlemiptera-Lleteroptera. 
SALDIDZ. 
Of this family we have only one British genus, out of the 
three genera known as Huropean. The Saldidi are pecu- 
liar in their habits, most of them frequenting the sides of 
streams and marshy places, especially salt marshes, where 
they live on the mud, under and amongst saline plants, 
such as Arenaria, Salsola, etc.; orthochila, however, is 
found on heaths, and does not appear to care for moisture, 
r. J. EK. Mason, Ent. Mo. Mag., xxv., p. 236, gives an 
interesting account of the habits of Salda /ateralis and 
saltatoria, and remarks that they are able to live for some 
time under water; in some cases he watched the insects 
crawling from one plant to another under water. At p. 237 
he says :—“ I watched one until the receding tide left it, 
after near an hour’s submersion; so long as its body and 
surroundings were wet, it showed nothing of its usual wari- 
ness and activity, and was easily taken up with the fingers.” 
Under ordinary circumstances, as all know who have tried 
to capture them, they are most agile, and run and jump 
freely. The family may be briefly characterized thus :— 
Species shghtly convex, oval, eyes very large and promi- 
nent, ocelli placed between the eyes, two in number in the 
Saldina, three in the Leptopina, of which we have no 
British representative ; antennze filiform, slightly thickened 
towards the apex; rostrum three-jointed, not lying against 
the prosternum; pronotum variable in form, but with the 
lateral margins always carinate, the base largely sinuate ; 
scutellum large, depressed at the base ; elytra composed of 
corium, clavus and membrane, exterior margin of the corium 
rounded and reflexed, membrane often more or less abbre- 
viated, with four long subparallel cells, their apices sub- 
parallel to the apical margin of the membrane ; abdomen 
with three genital segments exposed in the 4, three in the 
2 above, but covered beneath by the extensive sixth 
segment; legs moderately slender, tarsi three-jointed. 
