152 THE UNIVERSITY SCIENCE’ BULLETIN, 
figures Ranatra and Nepa and discusses them under the title of “The 
Flying Water Scorpion.” Thus from an early date we have biological 
notes on Ranatra, Nepa, Notonecta and Naucoris. 
KEY TO GENERA. 
A. Body broadly oval and flat; legs not extremely long and slender; 
prothorax much broader than the head; anterior femora but little 
longer than tibiz. Nepa. 
AA. Body elongate oval; legs not extremely long and slender; pro- 
thorax little broader than head; anterior femora considerably 
longer than tibie. Curicta. 
AAA. Body very elongate; legs long and slender; prothorax narrower 
than head; anterior femora considerably longer than tibiz. 
Ranatra. 
Genus NEPA Linn. 1758. 
Body of these bugs is very flat and broad, nearly truncate in front, 
but pointed behind. The small head is set deeply into the anterior border 
of the prothorax. The eyes are small but protuberant. Ocelli are lack- 
ing. The prothorax is much wider than the head, and roundly incised 
in front to receive the head. The wings are broad and the limbs short. 
The front femora being little longer than the tibiz. 
Nepa apiculata Uhl. 1862. 
UWhiler in Harris Treat. Ins) Inj) Ver. edn, 3). p. 12; pl. Uy fies 1 
The following description is taken from the Standard Nat. Hist., vol. 
11, p. 258, 1884: 
“Color dull fuscous grey, with the base of the abdomen above more 
or less tinged with reddish. It is of an elliptical form, blunt in front, 
with a ridged middle line on the vertex, and with three short raised 
lines on the prothorax, each side of a longer one on the middle. The sur- 
face and margins of the thorax and head are roughly granulated, while 
these, together with the scutellum and corium, are rough and closely 
covered with stiff, short pile. The anterior femora have no teeth on the 
inner angle, but instead there is a prominent elbow, forming a wide ex- 
pansion for the sides of the deep gutter. The wings are smoke brown, 
with darker veins. This species closely resembles the European one, and 
measures about two-thirds of an inch to the end of the abdomen; while 
the respiratory tubes are a little more than one-fourth of an inch in 
length. Montandon has shown the differences between our species and 
the European N. cinerea Linn.” 
Curicta howardi, Montd. 1910. 
Montandon, Bul. Soe. Sci. Buecarest, XVIII, p. 181. 1910. 
“Of form elongate oval, visibly attenuate in front and behind, lateral 
edges not subparallel, its greater width situated toward the posterior 
third. Head quite enlarged, although a little narrower than the front 
part of the pronotum, as long as wide, including the eyes, longitudinally 
carinate throughout its length, the carina more obtuse on the posterior 
interocular portion. Interocular space more than three times as wide as 
the diameter of the eye. Eyes little, globular, anterior part of the head 
triangular, exceeding the anterior level of the eyes by a length equal to 
its width between the eyes in front. 
“Pronotum very visibly longer than its width behind, lateral edges sub- 
parallel on their anterior three-fifths, quite strongly widened on their 
posterior two-fifths; with four obtuse longitudinal carine, little accen- 
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