1925] 
Notes on the Giant Water Bugs 
89 
Collections of Belostomatidae at street lights in Lawrence, 
Kansas, May 1920: 
Benacus griseus 
Lethocerus americanus 
Date 
Male 
Female 
Male 
Female 
May 5th 
44 
57 
May 8th 
9 
7 
1 
May 9th 
22 
29 
May 21st 
9 
12 
5 
May 22nd 
29 
16 
4 
1 
Total 
113 
121 
10 
1 
Some of these bugs were paired and placed in aquaria and 
numerous egg batches secured. The number of eggs in a mass 
ranged from 8 to 17 and were placed on supports above the 
water. In one instance a female laid 17 eggs upon the back of 
the male. These were attached to the right wing cover near its 
tip and the male, when discovered, was resting high and dry 
above the water on the screening of the cage. Most of the egg 
masses were attacked and sucked dry by the bugs themselves. 
The eggs when protected from their forebearers have the ap- 
pearance of those photographed by Dr. J. G. Needham. 3 They 
undergo an astonishing increase in size as they develop. One 
egg, measured the day it was laid (May 10th), was 4.5 mm. long 
by 2.25 mm. in diameter. Shortly before it hatched (May 22nd) 
it measured 6.. 57 mm. long and 2.87 mm. in diameter. The 
newly deposited egg has the same color as I have noted for 
Lethocerus uhleri and, if left in the water, does not color up very 
well. If placed in the air, it becomes longitudinally striped with 
brown as described by Doctor Needham. The surface is irreg- 
ularly hexagonally reticulate, the gray and brown being laid down 
as units. Each hexagonal figure is of a single color, reminding 
one of the mosaic of a tile floor. 
The hatching process is very interesting. I was fortunate 
3 J. G. Needham, The Eggs of Benacus and Their Hatching, Entom. News, 
Vol. XVII, p. 1 13, 1907. 
