Fle 
HEMIPTERA. 

NEPA GRANDIS. 
GREAT WATER SCORPION. 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Roftrum bent inwards. Antenne formed like legs. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER 
AND 
SYNONYMS. 
Brown. Thorax, fcutellum, and elytra, varied with obfcure yellow marks. 
Nera Granpis teftacea, fcutello levi, alis albis maculis venifque flavis. Linn. Sy/t. Nat. 2. 713. 1. 
Nepa Grandis, fufca flavo maculata. Fab. Ent. Sy. T. 4. p. 61. 
Merian Surin. tab. 56. 
Die groffe Surinamifche, breitleibige Waflerwanze. Roef. Inf. 3. tab. 29. 
Le Grand Scorpion-aquatique. Stoll. Cimic. 2. tab. 7. fig. 4. 
De Geer Inf. 3. 379. 


M. Merian has given a plate and defcription of this fpecies in her work on the Infeéts of Surinam. 
We learn from that account, that in the larva and pupa ftate it lives in the water; that it is a voracious 
creature, and feeds not only on the weaker kinds of aquatic infeéts, but on fome animals much larger than 
itfelf. The pupa t is reprefented on the back of a large frog in the water, and is defigned to pourtray the 
manner in which it faftens on thofe creatures, holds them between its ftrong curved fore feet ", and extracts 
the juices of their bodies, through its fingularly conftructed beak. M. Merian fays the winged infect came 
out of one of thefe creatures on the twelfth of May 1701. 
Every writer on this infe&t fince M. Merian, appears indebted to her, for their account of thefe few 
particulars; for though all the European fpecies of. the fame genus undergo precifely the fame changes in 
their aquatic dwellings, among decayed vegetables, &c. at the bottom of the water, and quit it only in the 
t Thefe arc femi-completa: unlike the pupa of the Lepidoptera, &c. thefe fcarcely differ in appearance or manners of life from the 
complete infect, but have only the rudiments of the wings. 
2 If thefe correfpond with the antennz of other infeéts, the Nepa has only four feet. 
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