HEMIPTERA. 45 



BELOSTOMA INDICA? 



Plate 18. 



Sub-Order. Hemipterita, Kirby. 



Section. Hydrocorisa, Latreille. 



Family. Nepids, Leach. 



Genus. Belostoma, Latreille. Nepa p. Linn. 



Ch. Sp. B. " squalide lutea, maculis fuscis, femoribus anticis nigro-lineatis, coxis quatuor 



posticis immaculatis." Long. Corp. 3 unc. 

 B. dirty clay coloured with brown spots, the anterior femora with black lines, and 



the four posterior coxee immaculate. Length 3 inches. 

 Stn. Belostoma indica? Enc. Meth. X. p. 272. 



Nepa grandis, Donovan, 1st edit. Stoll Cimic. 2. t. 7. /. 4. (Exclus. synon. 



Linn. Fabr. Merian, H'vsel, and Be Geer.) 



M. Merian has given a plate and description of the South American Belostoma 

 grandis in her work on the Insects of Surinam. We learn from that account, that in the 

 larva and pupa state it lives in the water ; that it is a voracious creature, and feeds not 

 only on the weaker kinds of aquatic insects, but on some animals much larger than itself. 

 The pupa* is represented on the back of a large frog in the water, and is designed to 

 portray the manner in which it fastens on those creatures, holding them between its strong 

 curved fore feet, and extracting the juices of their bodies through its singularly constructed 

 beak. M. Merian says, the winged insect was produced from one of these pupae on the 

 twelfth of May, 1710. 



Every writer on this insect since M. Merian appears indebted to her for their account 

 of these few particulars ; for though all the European species of the same family undergo 

 precisely the same changes in their aquatic dwellings, among decayed vegetables, &c. at 

 the bottom of the water, and quit it only in the winged state, t we are indebted to her for 

 the time of the appearance of this exotic species in that state, as well as for a correct 

 figure of its pupa. 



Linnaeus, following Merian, gives Surinam as the country of B. grandis; Margravius, 



* The pupa is semi-completa : unlike the pupa of the Lepidoptera, &c. it scarcely differs in appearance or 

 manners of life from the complete insect, but has only the rudiments of the wings. See the lower figure in the 

 accompanying plate. 



t Nepa cinerea and linearis are English species of this family ; these live in the water till they have wings, 

 when they occasionally quit it to pursue other winged creatures. 



