266 Mr. A. Murray on the Habits of the Prisopi. 
him in the mountains of Brazil; and its habits were to spend 
the whole of the day under water, in a stream or rivulet, fixed 
firmly to a stone in the rapid part of the stream, but on the 
approach of dusk to leave the water and to sally forth into the 
night air on its own affairs, one of which undoubtedly would 
be to search for its lady love, whom it is reasonable to suppose 
we already know under some other form and described under 
some other name—judging, at least, from other Phasmide or 
leaf-insects, the perfect male of which has usually ample wings, 
while the female is not so well provided with organs for 
flight. 
The creature is a large orthopterous insect, with wings of 
unusual dimensions and, the under ones especially, of fine mem- 
branous texture, apparently by no means well adapted for an 
aquatic life. And yet we shall presently see they are so arranged 
that they can be folded up exactly like a well-cared-for umbrella, 
placed under the protection of a waterproof cover. 
Before passing the structure of the little creature under re- 
view and pointing out how thoroughly each part of it is fitted 
to the unusual mode of life ascribed to it, we may first pave the 
way by reminding the reader that this is not the only winged 
insect which has been ascertained to pass a great part of its life 
under water. Stoll figured a singular species, which Westwood* 
thinks belongs to the family of grasshoppers (Gryllide), under 
the name of the “Grillon aquatique cornu” (Henicus Stollit of 
G. R. Gray) ; but Westwood adds that “it is quite evident, from 
the saltatorial structure of the legs and the impossibility of the 
insect executing a leap under water (from the natural resistance 
of the element), that there must be a mistake in the statement 
that it is aquatic in its habits.” 
If I might hazard a conjecture on the subject, it would be 
that Stoll, who also describes our Prisopus, had received a true 
account of its habits, but had confounded it with the “ aquatic 
cricket,” and transferred the story from the one insect to the 
other. This is the less unlikely since we know that he had both 
in his cabinet. ; 
More recently Mr. Lubbock described to the Linnean Society 
two aquatic Hymenoptera of small size, which he had observed 
in a basin of pond-water. “Though most of the great orders,” 
says he, “are more or less richly represented (in water), no 
aquatic species of Hymenoptera or Orthoptera had till now been 
discovered. .... Great, therefore, was my astonishment, on the 
occasion to which I allude, when I saw in the water a small 
Hymenopterous insect, evidently quite at its ease, and actually 
* J.O. Westwood, Modern Classification of Insects, i. p. 456. 
ie 
