

98 THE INSECT WORLD. 
not yet got, all its parts have the form which they are to have 
later, after the wings are developed. 
Fig. 72 represents, after Charles de Geer’s memoir, the pupa of | 
the Reduvius personatus covered with dust, and resembling a 
spider; Fig. 73, the same insect cleaned—freed from the cloak of 
dust which served to disguise it. 
The Hydrometre (from véwp, water, and perpetv, to measure) have 
linear bodies. The head, which forms nearly the third of the 
eee entire length, is furnished with 
Re ily a at two long antenne, and armed 
Ne se Wak wath a thin, hair-like beak. The 
We - legs are long,and of equal length. 
The reader may have often seen 
the Hydrometra stagnorum walk- 
ing by jerks on the surface of the water (Fig. 74). The body 
and legs are of a ferruginous colour, the elytra a dull brown, 
and the wings hyaline or glassy, and slightly blackish. Geoffroy 
says that it resembles a long needle, and calls it the Needle-bug. 
The Hydrocorise, or Water-bugs, have the antenne shorter than 
the head, or scarcely attaining to its length, and inserted and 
hidden under the eyes, which are in general of 
remarkable size. All these Hemiptera are aquatic 
and carnivorous. We will mention the two prin- 
cipal types, the Nepe, or water scorpions, and 
the Notonecte, or boatmen. 
The Nepa cinerea (Fig. 75), which Geoffroy 
calls the oval-bodied water scorpion, and which 
he also designates by the name of the water spider, 
is very common in the stagnant waters of ponds 
and ditches. Its body, oval, very flat, of an ashy 
colour, with red on the abdomen, is four-fifths of an 
Fig. 75. inch long. The elytra are horizontal, coriaceous, 
Se ae and of a dirty grey. Its front legs, with short 
haunches, and very broad thighs, are terminated by strong pincers, 
which give to the insect a strong resemblance to the scorpion. 
It is by folding back the leg and the tarsus under the thigh, that | 
the animal holds its prey, and sucks it with its rostrum or beak. 
This rostrum is composed of three joints, and contains four 
















Fig. 74.—Hydrometra stagnorum 

