SECRETARY'S REPORT. 179 



gliding over the surface in pursuit of its 

 food. Its body is dusky black above, the 

 feet and hemelytra of the same color ; 

 beneath, silvery white ; it measures about 

 .CO in length, and scarcely .12 across the 

 widest part of the thorax ; the second 

 pair of feet are exceedingly long, and the 

 posterior pair but little less, the fore- 

 feet being short and stout and fitted for rig. 52. 

 grasping. Several others of this family are common to Massa- 

 chusetts and are to be regarded as somewhat beneficial, inasmuch 

 as they seize and destroy many noxious insects which have fallen 

 into the water by accident and would if not captured by the 

 inhabitants of this element make their escape and continue their 

 work of destruction. 



Of the terrestrial or land inhabiting Heteroptera the family 

 ReduviidcB oi Stephens, is perhaps the most serviceable to man- 

 kind. They are found upon plants of all kinds piercing the 

 tender bodies of vegetable eating insects and sucking their 

 juices. Pirates picipes of Ilerrick Scliaeffer or the 

 pitchy-footed Pirates (figure 53,) is one of the most 

 common in Massachusetts. It is of a deep black 

 color with hairy antennse and feet and measures 

 about .0 in length. Nabis ferus of Fabricius, or the 

 savage Nabis, a much smaller insect of a yellowish 

 brown color, the hemelytra spotted and lined with *'^' ^^' 

 fuscous, and a much longer and more slender rostrum than the 

 last, is equally common in this State and feeds upon various 

 small insects of tender consistence. It measures about .25 

 in length. Various species belonging to the typical genus 

 Reduvius are also found here, one of the most remarkable of 

 which is the Reduvius persondtus of Linneeus, or masked 

 Reduvius, probably introduced into this country from Europe. 

 It is often found in and about houses, is said to feed chiefly on 

 the bed-bug, Cimex leciularius, Linnseus, and is noted for its 

 peculiar habit of collecting and clothing itself with bits of lint 

 and particles of dust, so as to present a very odd appearance. 

 This habit is persisted in only during its larva and pupa stages, 

 and so faithfully that a specimen enclosed in a box, with no 

 material for this purpose, is recorded to have divested its cast 



