42 



CALIFORNIA STATE COMMISSION OF HORTICULTURE. 



cylindrical body. The latter strongly resembles a stick in the water, 

 where it is usually found in the dirt of the bottom. The family is 

 predaceous, and probably their peculiar form enables them to capture 

 their prey. 



Family Belostomidae (Electric-light Bugs). In the hot summer 

 nights, a very large insect will be seen flying around the electric lights 

 in cities near watercourses or lakes. Many of these fall to the ground, 

 where they are crushed under the heel of the pedestrian. These have 

 become so noticeable since the introduction of electric lights that many 

 people believe that they have been produced by the electricity, and 

 their common name of "electric-light bugs" has been given them in 

 recent years. These belong to the family Belostomidse, which family 



includes the giants of 

 the bug order. The com- 

 mon electric-light bug 

 in our California towns 

 will reach a length of 

 two inches and is the 

 Belostoma americanum, 

 while in the tropics and 

 in Mexico, specimens are 

 common three to four 

 inches in length. In 

 their larval form they 

 are wholly aquatic. 

 Their eggs are attached 

 to the stems of water 

 plants or other conven- 

 ient objects, and, as soon 



as hatched, they commence their predatory career. They are exceedingly 

 destructive to young fish, the young of frogs and toads, and other 

 small game within their reach, which they capture by means of their 

 strong fore feet and leisurely suck the blood. This insect is very 

 numerous in Sacramento and in the valley where the great water areas 

 furnish it ideal breeding grounds, and on summer nights they may be 

 seen by thousands under the electric lights. 



A peculiar member of this family is the genus Zaitha, in which the female 

 lays her eggs on the back of the male, and he is compelled to carry 

 them about and care for them until he is relieved of the load by their 

 hatching. The male resents this indignity, but the female compels him 

 to submit, and sometimes this is accomplished only after a struggle of 

 several hours. In spite of protests and struggles, however, his better 

 half always gets the best of the argument and he has to take care of 

 the babies. It was at one time thought that the female laid the eggs 



FIG. 41. Electric-light bug (Belostoma americanum). 

 Natural size. 



