142 HEMIPTERA. 
The colour is a dark brown — the head 
long and small — four thick, short palpi — 
antennae filiform — ^thorax cylindrical, with 
a soft, velvety appearance — elytra short, 
strongly marked with black veins — wings 
very long and pointed — three joints in 
each foot — and the fore feet large and 
flat, ending in four large serrated claws, 
with which it burrows in swampy ground, 
and along the sides of canals and 
ponds*. 
Lucy. You see, mamma, in that re- 
spect it is like a mole. 
Mother, In May it makes its nest 
under the sward. This nest, in shape 
and size, is something Tike a small round 
snuffbox, neatly smoothed and plastered : 
it has a long circuitous entrance, composed 
of winding passages and small caverns ; 
and in the chamber the female deposits 
about a hundred eggs, which are of a 
dull yellow colour, and shaped like car- 
raway comfits. These eggs are placed so 
near the surface of the ground, that they 
* See Plate X. 
i 
