34 o THE INDO-PACIFIC AND ITS SHORES 



bugs, which are represented by about fifteen different species. Among these is 

 the silky-haired Halooates sericeus, restricted to the Pacific, which is only an 

 eighth of an inch in length, and in colour grey above and silvery white beneath. 

 These minute insects, it is reported, feed on the freshly dead bodies of small marine 

 organisms, as well as on the juices of jelly-fishes. Although several other kinds 

 of insects will venture for short distances into the water on the margin of the 

 retreating tide, the species under consideration, which are members of the great 

 group of bugs, Hemiptera-Homoptera, are the only ones living on the surface of 

 the open ocean. They are quite devoid of wings, and carry the middle pair of legs 

 thrown across the back, so that they are placed immediately over the hind ones. 

 For a certain period the female carries the eggs on her own body, but later these 

 become attached to some foreign substance, such as a feather or a piece of cork, 

 on which they are carried about until the young Halobates are hatched. 



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