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 tibise. Nepa. 



AA. Body elongate oval; legs not extremely long and slender; pro- 

 thorax little broader than head; anterior femora considerably 

 longer than tibiae. Curicta. 



AAA. Body very elongate; legs long and slender; prothorax narrower 

 than head; anterior femora considerably longer than tibiae. 



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 tibiae. 



Nepa apiculata Uhl. 1862. 



Uhler in Harris Treat. Ins. Inj. Veg. edn., 3, p. 12, pi. 1, fig. 1. 



The following description is taken from the Standard Nat. Hist., vol. 

 11, p. 253, 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." 



Ciiricta howardi, Montd. 1910. 



Montandon, Bui, Soc, Sci. Bucarest, 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 carinae, little accen- 



