HEMIPTERA. 101 
two species, other eggs of a more considerable size, and which he 
attributed to a new species of the genus Notonecta, about which 
we are now going to say a few words. 
The Notonecta glauca, which Geoffroy calls the Large Bug with 
Oars (“Grande punaise a avirons”’), is very common in ditches, 
reservoirs, and stagnant waters. Its body is oblong, uarrow, con- 
tracted posteriorly, convex above, flat below, having, at its sides and 
its extremities, hairs which, when spread out, support the animal on 
the water. Its head is large and of a slightly greenish grey, and 
has on each of its sides a very large eye of a pale brown colour. 
Its thorax is greyish, the hemelytra of a greenish grey, the mem- 
branous wings white. Of its legs, the front four are short; but 
the hind legs, almost twice as 
long, are furnished with long 
hairs, and resemble oars. It 
is with the aid of these that 
the animal moves through the 
water; and it does so in a 
singular manner, placing itself 
on its back, and generally in 
an inclined position, as in Fig. 77. 
When this insect, on the contrary, drags itself along on the 
mud, the front legs are those which it employs, the hind legs 
being idle, and merely drawn along behind it. It is generally 
towards the evening or during the night that it comes out of 
the water, to walk and to fly, if it wishes to pass from one marsh 
to another. 
This blood-thirsty insect lives entirely by rapine; it is one of 
the most carnivorous of insects. Those which it attacks die very 
soon after they have been bitten by it. De Geer thinks that the 
water bug drops into the wound a poisonous humour. It seizes 
upon insects much bigger, and apparently much stronger, than 
itself, and does not spare its own species. 
The instrument with which the Notonecta attacks its prey is 
composed of a very strong and very long conical beak, formed 
of four joints. The sucker is composed of an upper piece, short, 
pointed, and of four fine pointed hairs. a 
The female of the Notonecta glauca lays a great number of eggs, 

Fig. 77.—Notonecta glauca. 
