10 THE BRITISH HEMIPTERA. 



times, liow long tlie individuals of each species remain as 

 larva, pupa or imago ; what species have more than one 

 brood in a year, and what constitutes the food of each species, 

 are matters that, in the great majoiity of instances, remain to 

 he determined. There is, therefore, a wide field for research 

 in the natural history of this sub-order of insects." 



Our readers must, therefore, understand that the almost 

 total omission of any notices of the natural history of the 

 species is a defect of which the authors were perfectly aware, 

 and which, if possible, they would most willingly have 

 avoided. Whenever any such scraps of information on reli- 

 able observation could be obtained they have been readily 

 inserted. Tlius at p. 66 we read of Eurygaster maurus that, 

 " according to Leon Dufour, this species is common in France 

 upon the ears of wheat, which it pierces and sucks whilst they 

 are in a green state." 



At p. 103 we have the following extremely interesting pas- 

 sage in reference to Acanthosoma griseum. 



" De Geer, in his Memoires (vol. iii. p. 262), gives a very 

 interesting account of the affectionate care bestowed by a 

 female of this species upon a numerous brood of young ones, 

 exactly after the manner of a hen with her chickens, adding 

 that Modeer had observed it was principally against the 

 attacks of the male that the mother defended her young. 

 Succeeding authors have quoted De Geer without, appa- 

 rently, having seen the fact stated. But Mr. E. Parfitt, of 

 Exeter, has sent us a female of this species, with several 

 young ones, gummed onto the same card, and the follow^ing 

 account of them : — 



" When I first saw the mother sitting in the bright sun- 

 shine in the midst of her progeny on a birch leaf, I was much 

 struck with the happy appearance of the family ; it reminded 

 me at once of the affection I had seen evinced by female For- 



