276 NOTONECTIBiE — WATER- BOATMEN. 



says : " On the lake of Texcuco I saw men occupied in col- 

 lecting^ the e.irers of flies from the surface of plants, and 

 cloths arranij^ed in long rows as places of resort for the 

 insects. These eggs, called agayacath, formed a favorite 

 food of the Indians long before the conquest ; and when 

 made into cakes, resemble the roe of fish, having a similar 

 taste and appearance. After the use of frogs in France, 

 and birds'-nests in China, I think these eggs may be con- 

 sidered a delicacy, and I found that they are not rejected 

 from the tables of the fashionable inhabitants of the 

 capital." 



The more recent observations of MM. Saussure, Salle, 

 Yirlet d'Aonst, etc. have confirmed the facts already stated, 

 at least in the most essential particulars. 



" The insects which principally produce this animal farinha 

 of Mexico," says a writer in the Journal de Pharmacie, " are 

 two species of the genus Corixa of Geoffroy, hemipterous 

 (heteropterous) insects of the family of water-bugs. One 

 of the species has been described by M. Guerin Meueville as 

 new, and has been named by him Corixa femorata : the 

 other, identified in 1831 by Thomas Say as one of those sold 

 in the market at Mexico, bears the name of Corixa mercen- 

 aria. The eggs of these two species are attached in innu- 

 merable quantities to the triangular leaves of the carex 

 forming the bundles which are deposited in the waters. 

 They are of an oval form with a protuberance at one end 

 and a pedicle at the other extremity, by means of which 

 they are fixed to a small round disk, which the mother 

 cements to the leaf. Among these eggs, which are grouped 

 closely together, there are found others, which are larger, of 

 a long and cylindrical form, and which are fixed to the 

 same leaves. These belong to another larger insect, a 

 species of Notonecta, which M. Guerin Meneville has named 

 Notonecta unifasciata.''^ 



It appears from M. Yirlet d'Aoust, that in October the 

 lakes of Chalco and Texcuco, which border on the City of 

 Mexico, are haunted by millions of "small flies," which, after 

 dancing in the air, plunge down into the water, to the depth 

 of several feet, and deposit their eggs at the bottom. 



"The eggs of these insects are called hautle (haoutle) by 

 the Mexican Indians, who collect them in great numbers, 

 and with whom they appear to be a favorite article of food. 



