553 



IIEMIPTERA-HETEROPTERA 



CHAP. 



antennae and legs of its members (Fig. 270). Altogether four- 

 teen sub-families are recognised, the most extensive one being 

 Harpactorides, including a great variety of remarkable forms ; in 

 the South American genus Notocyrtus (better known as Saccoderes, 

 Fig. 257), the prothorax is swollen and covers the body to a 

 greater or less extent in the fashion of a hood. In Yolinus 

 and Eidycs the coloration is the most conspicuous system that 

 could be devised, the sides of the abdomen (connexivum) being 

 expanded into bright -red lobes on which are placed patches 

 of polished -black. The most remarkable form of Reduviid 

 is, perhaps, one from China (Fig. 271) of considerable size, 

 of great fragility, and greatly resembling, like some Emesides, 

 a daddy-long-legs fly, though it does not belong to the Emes- 

 ides. It is an altogether anomalous form. According to 

 Seitz there is found on the Corcovado in Brazil a Eeduviid 



that exactly resembles one of the 

 dark stinging-wasps of the genus 

 Pepsis, and the bug makes the same 

 sort of movements as the wasp does, 

 though these are of a kind quite 

 different from those of ordinary bugs. 1 

 Although the attacks of Redu- 

 viidae on animals are usually con- 

 fined to the smaller and more 

 FIG. 272. Eggs of Endochus cinga- , , . . , . . . . 



lensis. "The eggs are attached defenceless kinds, yet this is by no 

 to a leaf and to each other by a me ans invariably the case ; there 



viscid substance ; eggs red, the . . 



cover pale yellow, with the club are in tact numerous species that do 

 white at the tip."-MS. note of not hesitate to attack man himself. 



E. E. Green. 



Several species of Reduvius do this 



in Southern Europe, and are frequently met with in houses. R. 

 personatus is the only species of the genus in England ; though 

 far from common anywhere, it is sometimes found in houses, and 

 is said to destroy the common bed-bug'; it is able to pass its 

 whole existence in our habitations, for the young are found as 

 frequently as the adult, and are usually concealed by a quantity 

 of dusty matter, or refuse, adhering to the body. This habit of 

 covering the body with some foreign substance is natural to the 

 Insect, the young that are found on trees being covered with 

 matter derived therefrom. Darwin has given us an account of 



1 Ent. Zeit. Stettin, li. 1890, p. 281. 



