Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/463

 a little larger and darker colored than its American cousin, and apparently is more common southward than at the North, The life histories of the two species, so far as we know them, appear  to be very similar. The eggs of the southern form are laid in masses on sticks or other rubbish at the margins of ponds. The general color of recently laid specimens is greenish brown, with longitudinal stripes of darker brown, and a faint indication of a light crescent near the top. Their bases are glued to each other and to the stick on which they are deposited by a sort of mucilage. An idea of the appearance of these eggs may be obtained from Fig. 3.

In South America a still larger species is found; it is called Belostoma grande, or the great belostoma. Still other species occur in Central America and Cuba, China and India, Egypt and Africa, but none are found in northern Europe.

Wherever these bugs appear they are formidable enemies of small fishes, frogs, and other aquatic animals. Of the Belostoma griseus, Prof. Uhler writes: "Developing in the quiet pools, secreting itself beneath stones or rubbish, it watches the approach of a mud-minnow, frog, or other small-sized tenant of the water, when it darts with sudden rapidity upon its unprepared victim, grasps the creature with its strong, clasping fore legs, plunges its deadly beak deep into the flesh, and proceeds with the utmost coolness leisurely to suck its blood. A copious supply of saliva is poured into the wound, and no doubt aids in producing the paralysis which so speedily follows its puncture in small creatures." In the breeding ponds of the Massachusetts Fish Commissioners these bugs destroyed so many young fish a few years ago that the authorities had to take special pains to catch and kill them.

In many localities these insects have lately received the popular name electric-light bugs, because they fly so freely to electric lights. This indicates that in going from pond to pond they are nocturnal.

There is another species belonging to this family which is common throughout most of the United States. It is less than half the size of those we have been discussing, and is called by entomologists Zaitha fluminea, or the river zaitha; and is also known as the lesser water bug. It is a brown insect of the size and shape shown in Fig. 4. Its legs are provided with fringes for swimming, and it has a slender, sharp-pointed beak. As one would expect, it feeds on smaller animals than do the belostomas. A few years ago I dredged a number of these bugs out of an Ohio pond,