5HE WATER SCORPIOW. 42f 



Genus VII. — The Nepa, or Water Scorpion, 



L HE chara6lerlflic3 of thefe animals are drawn from their 

 infle6led roftrum, the chilitorm * antennae, and the four 

 wings folded crofswife, the ante! ior part being coriace- 

 ous. In the Syilem of Nature there are fix fpecies enu- 

 merated, three of which are found in Britain. All thefe 

 dwell in the water, both in the ttate of larva and chrjfa- 

 lids. The eggs of the water fcorpion are alfo depofited 

 in that element ; they are of an oblong ftiape, and have 

 at one extremity two or more vibnfcae, the only part 

 of them which is feen, the reft being funk and con- 

 cealed in the ftalk. of a bulruih, or other water plant. 

 Thefe plants may be removed, and placed in water near 

 the natura ill, who may thus have an opportunity of fee- 

 ing them hatched and coming forth animated larvae im- 

 mediately under his eye. The water fcorpions, when 

 thus excluded from the eggs, remain for fome time in the 

 ftate of worms, in the place of their nativity. When they 

 arrive at their full fiz<^, and arc metamtrphofed into 

 complete inle£ts, they are fometimes an inch m length, 

 and nearly half aS broad. 'I he antennae appear in the 

 ufual place of the fore legs f ; ihey are armed with a 

 forceps, well adapted to the rapacious purpofes to which 

 they are applied. The ntpae are of ail animals the moft 



tyrannical j 



• J. e. Formed like a hook, or the clavrs of a crab. 

 I Vide Geoffrojr, as quoted by Barbuc, p. i^i. 



