H E M I P T E R A .
winged ftate v, we are indebted to her for the time o f tlie appearance o f this exotic fpecies iu tliat ftate,
as well as for a correft figure o f its pupa.
Authors vary in their accounts o f its native country. Linnæus, following Merian, makes it Surinam}
Margravius, Brq/d} and Fabricius, America generally. We obferve a flight difference between our Chinefe
fpecimen and the figures in preceding works referred to by Fabricius; but in giving it as the Nepa Grandis
o f that author, we have no hefitation, having compared it with thofe fpecies referred lo by Fabricius in the
colleftion of the Right Hon. Sir Jofeph Banks, Bart.
N E P A R U S T I C A .
E G G - C A R R Y I N G W A T E R S C O R P I O N .
S P E C I F I C C H A R A C T E R
S Y N O N Y M S .
Without tail, brown. Margin o f the thorax, and anterior edge of the wing cafes, pale.
N e p a R u s t i c a : ecaudata fufca thoracis elytrorumque margine antico albido. Fah. Em. Syfi. T . 4 . 6 2 . 3 .
Nepa Plana. Sulz. H iß . Inf. tab. ~. fig 2.
Infefts in general difcover an extraordinary degree o f care, and ingenuity, in depofiting their eggs in
the moft fecure fituations, or places where tlie Infant brood, when hatched, may be provided with proper
fuftenance. Thofe o f the aquatic kind ufually lay them in receffes in the mud or fand, or under loofe
ftones th at lie a t the bottom o f the water: others, with as much care, and more ingenuity, hollow out the
interior fubftance of the large ftalks o f water plants, and depofit their eggs in them; or, rifing out o f the
water, lay them in the extreme branches o f thofe plants, to fecure them from other aquatic depredators.
The Nepa ruftica difplays even more fagacity, or attachment for its eggs, than thofe creatures; for it never
leaves them. Till they are hatched, it bears them on its back, in a clufter of an oval fliape; thefe eggs are
o f an oblong form, and are faftened by the narroweft end to a thin film, or plate o f cement, that caufes
them to adhere to the poliihed furface o f the wing cafes; when thefe eggs, about an hundred in number,
are hatched, it cafts off the exuviae o f the clufter, and differs no longer in general appearance from the male
o f the fame fpecies.
Our figures reprefent the fituation o f the eggs on the back, and the infeft alfo after they are eaft oft’.
I t is not commonly received with the eggs upon it. Found on the coaft of Coromandel, as well as China.
V Nepa Cinerea and Line.iris are Englifti fpecies; thefe live in thc water till they have wings, when they occafionaliy quit it to purfue
other winged creatures.— C h in a produces a fpecies which differs very little except in fize from N. Cinerea. Fuirkius a \h it N e p a R u b r a
in his Ent. Sy/i. T 4. g. 6 j . f p . C. We deem a f.irther defcription of it unneccffary.