24 



The Gigantic Water Bug (Belostoma grandis. — Linn.) 



Fig. 17, This very large bug, which is represented in figure 17, is 



often a subject of wonder. It is frequently washed up along 

 our lake shores, is often seen in swampy waters, and at other 

 times and in other places intrudes itself upon our notice, always 

 exciting the astonishment of the beholders by its size and 

 strength. This insect belongs to an entirely different order 

 from those already referred to, they belonged to the lepidop- 

 tera or scale winged insects- this to the order hemiptera, which 

 embraces all those insects which may be correctly and properly 

 known as true bugs. The genus belostoma, to which this par- 

 ticular insect belongs, includes some of the most gigantic forms, 

 some species being as much from three to four and a half inches 

 long — the species with which we are immediately concerned 

 often measures nearly three inches. These insects have very 

 fiat oval bodies, small heads, large eyes, and large membranous 

 wings, which enable them to fly considerable distances. Their 

 fore feet are armed with sharp claws, while their hinder limbs 

 are broad and flat and adapted for swimming. Westwood says : 

 " The females of some species of belostomoe carry their eggs 

 upon their backs, arranging them in a single layer with great 

 symmetry." They feed upon aquatic insects and not upon 

 vegetable food. They are furnished with a sharp and formid- 

 able beak, which they thrust through the bodies of the creatures they attack, at the same 

 time holding their victims firmly fast with their sharp-clawed fore-legs. Dr. Packard 

 says, in his " Guide," p. 537 : " Professor A. E. Verrill has sent me the eggs and freshly 

 hatched young of one of our New England species of bdostoma, the former of which he 

 found in the spring under an old log just at but above the edge of the water. On the 18th 

 of June they hatched out a most amusing flock of young bugs, nearly as large as squash bugs, 

 and light yellowish green in colour, which soon changed to dark gray." The young, two 

 days old and previous to moulting, were '35 of an inch long. The eggs are smooth, cylin- 

 drical, "16 of an inch long, and are deposited in a mass of about ninety eggs, attached by 

 the posterior end to a mass of silk gum. They partially overlap each other, and the 

 young escape by a round lid, indicated by a semicircular white line." The young insects 

 very much resemble their parents excepting in size, but their wings, however, in this 

 young state are not developed. » 



The Many-Lined Jvujs—{JuIiu< muUistriatus. — Walsh). 



There are several species of Julus commonly known as " thousand-legged worms," 

 . inhabiting Canada. The small species represented 



^^BB^fc||[Mi— aa^aM|^^^^^ in fig, 18 is common in the Western States, and 



^»^^^^^^B^Ws^^^m!9^\ ^^^^ probably occurs with us also, although not 

 ^ ^^f^mlwlfiii''^^ §^ SO commonly as/. Canadensis ; there is however so 



' much similarity between the different species com- 



posing this family as they occur with us, that the figure of any one of them will very well 

 serve to illustrate the group. These are not true insects, but resemble them in many res- 

 pects, and are often to be seen in collections of insects shown at our various exhibitions. 

 They belong to the order myriapoda. In their nervous, digestive, respiratory^ and repro- 

 ductive systems, they very closely resemble those of the larvae of insects, the circulatory 

 system is however of a lower type. 



The body is almost perfectly cylindrical, the head large, with thread-like antennae ; 

 their numerous feet are short and slender, attached to the' under surface of the body nearly 

 in the middle. When in a state of activity these feet move with a sort of wave-like mo- 

 tion, but when at rest or disturbed the body is frequently coiled up. They are commonly 



