30 
EIIYNCOTA. 
on.” It is very common in ditches and ponds, where 
it crawls slowly in the mud. It is of a long oval-shape 
and thin, looking like a decayed leaf more than an 
animal. Nepa is as black as he is painted, being a 
ravenous destroyer of various larvae of other insects, 
which he seizes with his nippers, when he has stealthily 
succeeded in getting sufficiently near his victim ; but 
he seems so flat, one can hardly guess where he has 
room to stow away much food ! But it must be 
remembered that Nepa, like the Bhyncota generally, 
only sucks the juices of his victims, and does not 
consume their carcases. But though he looks so grimy 
outside, if you will open his wing-covers } T ou will see 
the upper part of the abdomen is prettily marked with 
a bright brick-red colour. The bristle-like filaments 
are perfectly harmless instruments, in no way resembling 
a sting in function ; the insects extend them out of 
the water, and the air is by them conducted to the 
spiracles and tracheae. The Water-Scorpions’ eggs are 
of singular form ; they are oval and encircled at the 
base with seven long filaments which bend backwards ; 
when in the oviduct they seem to form a kind of a cup 
for the reception of the succeeding egg; these eggs have 
appropriately been compared to little shuttle-cocks with 
recurved feathers. I have often found them in the 
ditches in the Weald Moors here where the Water- 
Scorpion is exceedingly common. There is no meta¬ 
morphosis in the Nepidae ; the young lame being like 
their parents, except that the tail filaments are repre- 
presented in the larvae by a single short point. Nepa, 
like the rest of the family, can leave the water and take 
to flight, but I have never seen it on the wing. There 
