HUNGERFORD: AQUATIC HEMIPTERA. 149 
_ supposed eggs of Corydalus figured in the Am. Entomologist, 1868, really 
belonged to Belostoma grandis.” Weed, while collecting on the edge of a 
_ pond near Lansing, Mich., July 3, 1882, found a mass of eggs beneath a 
board lying at the water’s edge. ‘They looked fresh and beside them was 
a living B. americanus.” In Weed’s “Life Histories of American Insects,” 
1897, he says: “The eggs of the American Belostoma are deposited on 
pieces of wood or reeds along the margins of ponds, apparently where they 
will be wet, but generally not directly in the water. They are laid in 
clusters with from 40 to 60 or more eggs in each. The eggs themselves 
are about one-fifth of an inch long, oblong, ovate in form, with the 
general color brown, spotted with black; they are lighter colored below 
than above, and there is a whitish crescent near the top with a distinct 
black spot at its apex. This crescent indicates the margins of a little 
cap which comes off when the young bugs hatch. Green, 1901, figures 
and describes eggs of Amorgius indicus, and Distant, 1903, egg laying of 
_ same species. 
Feeding Habits. There can be no doubt of the fierce predaceousness 
of these bugs. Marie Merian, 1726, figures the nymph of a giant water 
_ bug sucking the juices from a young frog. Weed records that, “In the 
breeding ponds of the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners these bugs 
destroyed so many young fish that the authorities had to take special 
_ pains to catch and kill them.” Matheson in Ento. News, 1907, trans- 
mits a letter from Philip Lawrence telling of an attack upon a wood- 
pecker. A woodpecker (an ordinary flicker) was heard to utter cries 
of distress, and fluttered and fell down out of a tree. A very large bug 
was found attached to the woodpecker’s head. Its beak was inserted in 
the back part of the woodpecker’s head and its legs clamped tightly 
around the bird’s beak. Britton, 1911, records L. americanus as cap- 
turing a young banded pickerel, Lucius Americanus Gmelin, measuring 
«8% inches long. The writer has found that these bugs will, in the 
_ laboratory, make out on pond snails if there be no other fare. 
Behavior. The fact that these bugs are to be taken at the electric 
lights, sometimes far from water, indicates that they are strong fliers, 
and that they do their migrating from pond to pond at night. 
DESCRIPTION OF STAGES. 
_ Egg. Weed gives the egg of L. americanus as about one-fifth inch 
long, oblong ovate in form, with the general color brown spotted with 
black, lighter below than above, and a whitish crescent near the top, with 
a distinct black spot at its apex. 
The writer has captured Lethocerus uhleri and secured egg clusters in 
_ the aquarium. One female taken in July laid 4 ciusters of eggs one night, 
7, 7, 6, and 3 in each cluster, the eggs of which were bound together by 
a clear, gelatinous material. These eggs are figured on plate XVII and 
from them may be given this description: 
_ Size. Length, 3.25 mm. to 3.75 mm.; greatest diameter, 1.75 mm. to 
2.25 mm. 
Shape. Newly laid, irregular ovoid. 
