MATERNAL SOLICITUDE IN INSECTS. 579 



C. giHseus Linne as a .synonym!). Boitard [2], in Iiis Curiosites 

 d'Histoire Naturelle — a work unknown to me — embellishes these 

 accounts, according to Fabre [5], by noting- that when it rains the 

 mother leads her young under a leaf or under the fork of a branch to 

 shelter them, and cov^ers them with her wings. Montrouzier [19] 

 observed the habits of Oceanian Scutellerina3, a subfamily not closely 

 allied to the Acanthosomatina? (in which the birch bug is included). 

 His remarks have been recently translated in The Entomologist [1.5]. 

 Montrouzier appears to have been unaware of the researches of 

 Modeer and De Geer. Douglas and Scott [20] quote a letter addressed 

 to the former by E. Parfitt, inclosing an adult female and young 

 ones indentitied as Acantliomma grlseum. This letter circumstantially 

 verifies De Geer's observations, which, so Parfitt states, were unknown 

 to the English entomologist. These habits were still further con- 

 firmed in great detail, in three notices [10, 11, and 12], by Hellins, a 

 well-known and most careful observer. 



Last 3'ear I contributed to The Entomologist [15] a translation of 

 Montrouzier's observations [10], and noted ""a species of Spudseus {fy 

 sent by Doctor Willey from Birara (New Britain), of which I had 

 under my care for study alcoholic specimens apparently confirming 

 the generally accepted opinion. These specimens belong to the Peu- 

 tatomine Coctoteris exiguus Distant, a determination kindly confirmed 

 for me by the author of the specific name. 



So far the five original observers — viz, Modeer, De Geer, Mon- 

 trouzier, Parfitt, afid Hellins — agree that the female bug does show 

 parental aflection during a comparatively considerable period, and the 

 first named declares that this is, in part at least, directed against the 

 assaults of the male; but in 1901 J. H. Fabre — the "immortal Fabre" 

 of Darwin, and one of the foremost of modern field observers — has 

 published a length}^ document [5], in which he declares De Geer" to 

 l)e mistaken. The gist of Fabrels paper is as follows: The gray bug'' 

 is rare in Fabre's neighborhood. He found three or four specimens 

 which he placed under a bell jar, but they did not oviposit, though 

 eggs were laid b}^ the green [= Palcnnena prcmnus (Linne)], red and 

 black speckled \= Euri/dema ornatus (Linne)], and yellowish [sp. ?];'^ 

 and Fabre continues: "In species so closely allied, parental care in 

 one ought, at least in some details, to be discovered also in the others." 

 It can not be too strongly expressed that the last three are not at all 

 closeh^ related to the gray bug, for the last named belongs to the 



a The Swedish master and Boitard are the only authors mentioned by Fabre, and 

 he appears to be unaware of the independent ol)servations of Montrouzier, Parfitt, 

 and Helhns. 



b Elasmotiiefhus griseus {'Lmn6)=Acantli omnia interstinctum of Saunders's "Heniip- 

 tera Heteroptera of the British Isles." 



c Fabre calls these all ''Fentatoma." 



