88 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 
black, minutely sericeous pubescent, with a slender black stripe along 
the middle. Length to tip of venter, 2%4-2% mm.; width of pronotum, 
1 mm. 
“Three specimens of this insect were captured on the Mount Gay 
estate and Balthazar in June and August. During the latter month they 
occurred at the roots of grass, on muddy ground near pools. of water. 
This species is a common one which has been met with in the Atlantic . 
states and the West Indies, and it also occurs in California and Wash- 
ington states. In Maryland it lives on the damp sand or mud of small 
pools beside streams of water, in spring and late summer. The unwinged 
individuals may be found skimming over the surface of quiet water 
from spring until the end of summer.” 
Localities: Quebec, Ontario, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, q 
Maryland, Florida, Illinois, Colorado, California and Washington. 
B. BrioLoGy or HEBRIDZ. 
General Notes These small, plump-bodied insects live about the mar- 
gins of pools and upon the floating vegetation. They are predatory in 
habits. 
Genus MERRAGATA White. 
Little or nothing is known of their life history. 
Carl Drake says that those he has studied “are dwellers in still and 
stagnant waters. Their favorite haunts are secluded coves of lakes, 
ponds, and swampy pools, where the water is shallow, and where there 
is an abundant growth of aquatic plants. I have rarely seen them on 
the damp ground near the water’s edge. The Merragatas are aquatic 
pedestrians, capable of standing, walking, and running upon the surface 
of the water, their entire body being covered with a velvety pile which 
effectively sheds the water and prevents them from becoming wet. They 
can move forward or backward, but the usual mode of progression is a 
steady forward movement, all three pairs of legs being used in locomo- 
tion. I have often found them on Lemna, Nympheza, and various other 
aquatic plants. It is not uncommon to find them on the underside of 
floating leaves, or even among the roots of floating water plants. When 
submerged in the water, the insects are surrounded by a film of air 
which enables them to stay beneath the surface film for a considerable 
period of time. In an aquarium I have often watched them standing 
or walking for a period of a half hour or a little longer on pieces of 
cork or plants that were beneath the water. Occasionally, they will 
walk down the sides of the glass aquarium beneath the surface of the 
water, and when the water is shallow, they will walk across the bottom 
and come up on the opposite side.” 
Genus HEBRUS Curtis. 
These insects are to be found in the midst of moss clumps and shore © 
grasses by the water’s edge and upon the moist earth thereabouts. They 
are best observed by disturbing moss and grasses, from which they then 
come forth. They run about upon the mud or even upon the water, — 
though they do not take to the water as readily as do the Merragatas and 
Microvelias. A few notes on the habits of these insects are given in 
“Brauer, 1909”; in “Guide to British Water Bugs,” by Kirkaldy, 1899; 
in collecting notes by Bueno, and in Kulgatz’s article “Die Aquatilen — 
Rhynchoten Westpreuss,” 1911. 
Kulgatz says that Hebrus ruficeps lives in Sphagnum and has been | 
taken in January, May, June, July, August and September, October and © 
November. He found them under a 16-cm. snow layer, wintering as 
