2S 
R1IYXC0TA. 
not of the same consistency throughout; from the base 
to the middle or beyond, the wings are more or less of 
a horny consistence, while the remaining portion of the 
wing is thin and membranous, the line of demarcation 
being distinct. In the Heteroptera the beak or rostrum 
springs from the front of the head. This sub-order 
contains two sections, the Hydrocorisa and the 
Aurocomsa ; the former, as the name implies, contains 
the Water-bugs, and the latter the Land-bugs. In the 
Hydrocorisa there are two families, the Notonectidoo 
and the Nepidce. As illustrations of these two families 
figures will be seen in Plate I. Fig. 10 is the Water 
Boatman (Notonecta glauca ), a common insect in pools 
and canals. Its body is shaped like a boat, the keel 
of which is the back on which it floats and rows itself 
about by means of its long hind legs, which are deli¬ 
cately fringed with hair, forming as it were the blade 
of the oar. You may often see the boatman floating 
with outstretched oars, back downwards, on the surface 
of the water waiting for any little fly or gnat that may 
approach too near, which he will be certain to seize with 
his fore legs and pierce with his rostrum ; for boatman 
is eminently carnivorous in his diet, and possesses a 
sharp-pointed beak with cutting lancets, with which he 
will not hesitate to experimentalize on your finger if 
you give him a chance. I have often kept specimens in 
an aquarium, where they will become tame after a time, 
and take bits of meat off the tip of a camels-hair 
pencil. But if you are rearing young fish of any sort 
from the egg, you must beware of the boatman, for 
though he is not black in colour he is in disposition* 
and you may apply to him the words of Horace :— 
“ Ilic niger ebt, liunc tu Romane caveto.” 
