HUNGERFORD: AQUATIC HEMIPTERA. 33 
OVIPOSITION. 
The oviposition of the aquatics and semiaquatics does in 
large measure consist in affixing the eggs to some inert sup- 
port in the water. Yet there are two conditions wherein other 
organisms are involved. One, in those cases where the eggs 
are placed in incisions in plant tissues, and the other where 
the eggs are deposited upon some animal form. 
In the former case the plants are directly concerned. So 
long.as the eggs are merely glued to living plants for support, 
a safeguard against their loss in the bottom of the pool, they 
are not considered disturbed by the relation, but when their 
tissues are punctured and lacerated in the process, there enters 
a mutual ecological relation. 
The Hebrids and Saldids cache their eggs beneath the leaf 
sheaths of bog-moss and sphagnum, while the latter employ 
the shore grasses as well. Mesovelia and Rheumatobates are 
equipped to puncture plant tissues, and the fact that Mesovelia 
imbeds her eggs in the stems of spike-rush and leaves of cat- 
tail, has been elsewhere recorded. Members of each of the 
genera of the Notonectids can be found that make incisions in 
the stems of money wort and other submerged plants for the 
reception of their eggs. Two species of the genus Notonecta in 
this country, N. irrorata and N. lutea,* Buenoa margaritacea 
and Plea striola come in this class. 
The matter of the Corixid that in large measure attaches its 
eggs to those portions of the body of the crayfish which are 
bathed by water currents, is discussed under the biology of 
Ramphocorixa acuminata. (See page 218.) The eggs of this 
boatman have been found upon smart weed stems of uprooted 
floating plants and upon dragon fly nymphs, but in very small 
numbers compared to those affixed to the crayfish. Other 
Corixid eggs have been found covering the shells of living 
snails, etc., but in such cases little ecological significance can be 
attached to the phenomenon. 
FEEDING HABITS: THEIR RELATION TO OTHER ORGANISMS. 
The aquatic and semiaquatic Hemiptera are, as a group, no- 
torious predators, and the records from an early date are re- 
plete with accounts of their voraciousness. The observations 
* Judging from equipment of female. 
3—Sci. Bul.—1669. 
