96 



THE INSECT WORLD. 



Let US listen to De Geer. '' It walks as fast, when it likes, as 

 other bugs ; but generally its walk is slow, and it moves with measured 

 steps. After having taken one step forward, it stops a while, and 

 then takes another, leaving, at each movement, the opposite leg in 

 repose ; it goes on thus continually, step after step in succession, 

 which gives it the appearance of walking as if by jerks, and in 

 measure. It makes almost the same sort of movement with its 

 antennae, which it moves also at intervals and by jerks. All these 

 movements have a more singular appearance than it is possible for 

 us to describe."'"' 



By means of this disguise, it can approach little animals, which 

 become its prey, such as flies, spiders, bed bugs. 



I 



Fig. 72. — Pupa of Reduvius personatus, covered Fig. 73.— Pupa of Reduvius personatus, denuded 

 with its cloak of dust (magnified). of its cloak of dust (magnified). 



To see what a curious appearance the Reduvius presents, one 

 should take off its borrowed costume. Then you will observe an 

 entirely different animal, one which has nothing repulsive about it. 

 With the exception of the hemelytra and wings, which it has not 

 yet got, all its parts have the form which they are to have later, after 

 the wings are developed. 



Fig. 72 represents, from Charles de Geer's Memoir, the pupa of 

 the Reduvius personatus covered with dust, and resembling a spider ; 

 Fig. 73 the same insect cleaned, freed from the cloak of dust which 

 served to disguise it. 



The HydrometrcB (from i/'S«p, water, and ucToeTj/, to measure) 



* "Memoires pour servir a I'Histoire des Insectes." Tome ui., p. 28^^. 410. 

 Stockholm, 1773. 



