116 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



foi'getfulness must not be considered as a possible aberration due 

 to captivity. In the full freedom of the fields I have discovered 

 diverse broods, among which are found, perhaps, that of the grey 

 bug ; never have I seen the mother mounted over her eggs, as 

 she ought to, if her family required protection as soon as hatched. 

 The mother is of roving inclination and facile flight ; once flown 

 far from the leaf which received the treasure, how, two or three 

 weeks later, will she remember that the hour of exclusion ap- 

 proaches ? How will she rediscover her eggs, and how again 

 distinguish them from those of another mother ? It would be 

 incredible, such prowess of memory amid the immensity of the 

 fields. 



" Never, I say, is a mother surprised stationary near the eggs 

 that she has fixed on a leaf, and, more convincing still, the total 

 brood is divided into clutches scattered haphazard, so that the 

 family in its entirety is formed of a number of tribes lodged 

 here, there, and at distances sometimes considerable, but im- 

 possible to fix precisely. To rediscover these tribes at time of 

 hatching, earlier or later according to the date of oviposition or 

 the forwardness of the season, and then to reassemble in one 

 flock from the four corners of the universe all the little ones, so 

 feeble and moving so unsteadily — there are in this evident im- 

 possibilities. Suppose that by chance one of the groups is dis- 

 covered and recognized, and that the mother devotes herself to 

 them. The others must in that case be abandoned — and they 

 do not prosper the less. What then is the motive for this 

 remarkable maternal zeal with regard to the care of one of the 

 groups when the majority are left ? Such singularities inspire 

 mistrust ! 



" DeGeer mentions groups of twenty. These would certainly 

 not be the complete family, but just a tribe resultant from a 

 partial oviposition. A Pentatoma, smaller than the grey bug, 

 has given me in a single batch more than a hundred eggs. A 

 like fecundity ought to be the general rule when the mode of 

 living is the same. Beyond the twenty observed, what became 

 of the others abandoned to themselves ? 



"Despite the respect due to the Swedish savant, the caresses 

 of the mother-bug and the unnatural appetites of the father, de- 

 vouring his little ones, ought to be relegated to the same limbo 

 as the childish tales which encumber history. I have watched 

 in an aviary {voliere) as many hatchings as I wished ; the parents 

 were near at hand, under the same roof. What do they all do 

 in the presence of the young ? Nothing at all ! The fathers do 

 not dash to drain the juices of their brats ! Neither do the 

 mothers rush to protect them ! One flits about the lattice- 

 work {treillis) [? metal gauze], one settles down to refreshment at 

 the rosemary, while another walks over the groups of newly- 

 hatched youngsters, which he tumbles head over heels, without 



