OF HARTING. 423 



supplies us with the well-known stick-lac (from which 

 a blood-red colouring matter is extracted), seed-lac, 

 lump-lac and shell-lac, all different forms of the same 

 secretion, and so useful in the manufacture of var- 

 nishes, cements and sealing-wax. 



In the next order* we meet with the Water Boat- 

 man, the Water Scorpion, the tribe of Field Bugs, 

 and, last though not least, the eminently unsavoury 

 Bed Bug. The structure of the different parts of the 

 mouth in all these insects is similar to that of the 

 members of the preceding order, but many of them 

 are predacious, and are capable of causing considerable 

 irritation by the wounds they inflict. The Notonecta 

 glauca is very common in our ponds and stagnant 

 waters, and is remarkable, as its generic name im- 

 ports, for the position it assumes in the water. It may 

 frequently be found stationary near the surface, and if 

 it be cautiously examined at these times, it will be 

 seen to be resting on its back, with its two long fringed 

 legs extended on each side at right angles with the 

 body. These are the oars of the water boatman, and, 

 on being disturbed, it uses them so effectually that it 

 quickly disappears in the water. We have more than 

 once caught a specimen on the wing, and on one occa- 

 sion, after having captured one and removed it from 

 the net, we were not a little astonished at receiving 

 from it a very painful puncture in the finger, the effect 

 of which was exactly as if a drop of scalding water 

 had fallen on the skin ; with this incident imprinted 

 on our memory, we are not surprised to learn that the 

 Notonecta will not only attack gold fish in an aquarium, 

 but actually cause their death. In the same localities 

 as the last we find the Water Scorpion (Nepa cinerea\ 

 a broad flat-bodied predacious insect, with two long 



Order HETEROPTERA. From the Greek, heteros, unlike, and 

 pteron, a wing. Wings four, the upper ones (Hemelytra) coria- 

 ceous at the base and membranous at the tip. 



