238 Nerve-winged Insects; Scorpion-flies; Caddis-flies 
dropped a few at a time during the adult life. So far as observed, 
egg-laying consists simply of extruding the eggs and letting them drop at 
random. 
The habits of the curious wingless species, Bittacus apterus, common 
in California, have been observed by Miss Rose Patterson, a student of 
Stanford University. These long-legged, thin-bodied creatures are not 
readily distinguished among the drying grass-blades where they live, because 
the color of the body is almost exactly like the yellowish tan of the plants. 
Miss Patterson went into the field one windy day when clouds were scudding 
over the sky. At first not a scorpion-fly was to be seen; then, in a brief 
period of sunshine, one was seen swinging itself deliberately along from 
one grass-blade to another. When the wind blew hard it either held firmly 
to the weeds or dropped down to the ground for protection. Finally it took 
up its position near a flower-cluster and clung by all its tarsi. When a bee- 
fly came passing that way it immediately freed two of its legs and held them 
out in an attitude of expectancy. When the fly had passed it remained 
in that position for a minute or so and then relaxed into what seemed a more 
comfortable attitude, holding on by all tarsi. As it became cloudy again, 
the insect dropped down among the weeds and remained near the ground, 
its legs resting on the grass-stems and its abdomen pointing almost directly 
outwards. Miss Patterson disabled a small skipper butterfly and dropped 
it near the Bittacus, but he seemed to pay no attention. A lady-bug did 
not arouse him. A fly passed over and still he did not move. She touched 
him with a pencil-point and he drew back and began to feign sleep. When 
she continued to disturb him he showed an inclination to fight, but did not 
leave his shelter until she forced him to do so by repeated pokes with the 
pencil-point. Then he ran nimbly to the top of a blade of grass and hung 
there: his tarsi went scarcely around the leaves. He remained in that posi¬ 
tion, motionless, until a bird twittered overhead; then he promptly found 
a sheltered place in a drooping grass-leaf. 
Near him she discovered another scorpion-fly, with a crane-fly in its 
clutches. The crane-fly was still alive and struggled feebly while the scor¬ 
pion-fly sucked its blood. She disturbed them, but though the scorpion- 
fly stopped its eating, it held its prey as before and moved slowly off with 
it. The body of the crane-fly was almost cut in two by the grasping tarsi of 
its enemy. 
Finding another of the queer creatures swinging on a weed, its four legs 
held out hungrily, she gave it a crane-fly, which it grasped firmly, winding 
the tarsi around its body. The crane-fly struggled, but its captor soon had 
its head buried almost to the eyes in its body. Finally the mangled crane- 
fly gave out. She caught another crane-fly and held it out to the scorpion- 
fly, which thereupon grasped its first victim firmly in one of its hind tarsi 
