Note 10 — Chapter II · SAPRINI, DERMESTES AND OTHERS

Let us pass on to others. Who is this, assiduous visitor, but appearing only in small parties, hardly more than four or five at a time? It is an Hemipteron,10 a slender Bug, with red wings and with stout, toothed thighs to its hind-legs; it is the Spurred Alydus (A. calcaratus, Linn.), a near kinswoman of the Reduvius, so interesting because of her explosive egg.11 She too has an appetite for game, but how moderate compared with the other’s! I see her wandering over my specimens in search of a denuded bone bleached by the sun. After finding a suitable point she applies the tip of her rostrum to it and for some time remains motionless.