The present species is the commonest of the genus.

As may be inferred from its specific name, the surface of the insect has a brassy gloss. The thorax is squared, very convex, and on either side of the disc is an elevated straight ^ line. The elytra are striated and punctured, and the under surface of the body is clothed with thick golden down. Besides already given, the last joint of the tarsi is the characteristics very long, and armed with two large, sharp, and curved claws, by means of which they are enabled to retain their position on the stones in spite of the rushing water. It is rather remarkable that, although the upper surface of the body is very and the Beetles pass the greater part of their time smooth, in rapid streams, the body is often so caked with submerged mud that the shape of the insect is nearly obscured.

Now we come to a very familiar but little understood called the Black Water Beetle. Like some insect, popularly species, it has been confounded with the of the preceding because it inhabits the water, no re- Hydradephaga, merely to its structure, or even its mode of ference being made Indeed, I believe that scarcely any, except entomofeeding. logists, have the least idea that the Dyticus and the present Beetle are not the same insect, the only difference being that than the other. Now, if we examine this one is much larger piceus, we shall find a vast number of struc- Beetle, Hydrous tural differences, as well as complete divergence in habits.

The Beetle belongs to the family of Hydrophilidae, i.e. water-lovers. Sometimes the two halves of the word are transposed, the Beetles being called Philhydrida, the signification being exactly the same in both cases. The family may be known by the size of the palpi, which are as long as the antennae and sometimes longer — the latter organs never having more than nine joints, and sometimes only six — and by the double lobe of the maxilla and the very short mandibles. The tarsi have five joints. The typical genus has the mandibles armed on the inside with three strong teeth, notched at their tips ; the second joint of the maxillary palpi is very long, and the elytra become narrower towards the apex.

The insect is represented on Woodcut XII. Fig. 4, of its natural size, showing that, with the exception of the Stag Beetle, it is our largest coleopterous insect. A glance at the figure will show one of the principal peculiarities of this Beetle, namely, that the palpi far exceed in length the antennae, and project in front considerably before those organs. The sexes are easily distinguished by a glance at the antennae, and the tarsi of the first pair of legs. The antenna of the male is drawn on the same woodcut. Fig. e, and in the same sex the last joint of the front tarsi is very much dilated, and assumes the form of a partly flattened triangle. The same limb in the female does not possess the widened joint, and may be seen by reference to Fig. d. The metasternum terminates in a sharp spine, so long that its point reaches beyond the coxae of the last pair of legs.

The colour of this Beetle is smooth blackish- olive, the margins of the elytra taking a bluish tinge. The wings themselves are very large, and have a very fine effect when spread. On each of the elytra are eight striae, and the breast is clothed with thick yellow down. The metasternum is developed, as in the Dyticus, into a pointed process, but in this insect the weapon is simply needle-shaped, and is about the size of an ordinary darning-needle. It is black, highly polished, and very sharp. There is much variation in tint in different individuals but the average hues are as given above. ^

The life history of this insect is a very curious one. The female Beetle is furnished with a complete silk-spinning apparatus, the spinnerets being placed, not in the mouth, as is the

case with the silkworm, hut at the end of the tail. With these instruments she forms a cocoon shaped almost exactly like a turnip, being round, and having a pointed projection from one side. Within this cocoon, which soon becomes hard and watertight, and is fastened to the stem. of a water-plant, the eggs are placed ; and in a time varying from a fortnight to six weeks, according to the warmth of the weather, the larvse are hatched. About fifty or sixty eggs are placed in one cocoon, and by this extraordinary provision they are preserved from harm until the larvae are able to escape into the water and shift for themselves. They are very small at first, but rapidly increase in size until they attain the length of three inches.

One of these larvae is shown at Fig. /, and is represented as partly grown. It is soft, fat, and dusky in colour, and feeds voraciously on molluscs and other aquatic animals, as might be inferred from the large and curved jaws. It is one of the airbreathing larvae, and is therefore obliged to come frequently to the surface in order to take in a supply of air, which is done by means of a filamentous appendage at the end of the tail. Somewhere about July the larva has completed feeding ; and then leaves the water and crawls up the bank, searching for a soft spot in which to burrow. Here it sinks its tunnel, and forms an oval cocoon, in which it awaits its change into the pupal state.

The Beetles belonging to this group, being, like the larvse, air-breathers, are forced to come to the surface for the purpose of respiration ; and they contrive to carry down a supply of atmospheric air by enclosing a bubble under the bodies, where it looks like a globe of quicksilver as they swim about. As this species is not only handsome but harmless, it is in great favour with the keepers of aquariums, and is in consequence quite scarce in many places where it used to be plentiful, the professional dealers having ransacked all the streams within easy reach of London.

The family next in order, the Sphisridiidse, are distinguished from the preceding family by the shape of the tarsi, which are not fitted for swimming, and the hinder pairs of which members have the first joint much longer than the others. They are all small insects, rather globular in form, from which peculiarity

the name of the family is derived ; and they are dark-coloured,

black being the usual hue, relieved in some species by reddish

spots. In the genus Cercyon, from which our example is taken,

the club of the antenna is large and bold, the palpi are slender,

and the mentum is broad and flat. As is the case with most red and black Beetles, the colour is

exceedingly variable in different individuals, so different indeed,

that the present- species, Cercyon anale, which is drawn on oodcut XIII. Fig. 2, has been described under four separate

names, each name being used to represent a different species.

Its colour is black, but the elytra are generally tinted towards

the apex with reddish-chestnut, the size and exact tint of this ! mark varying exceedingly; and in some specimens the elytra ; are altogether black. Like the rest of the genus, it can be , found in cowdung. . species of Cercyon were catalogued, but j they have now been reduced to seventeen genuine species ; two- : thirds of the imagined species proving, on careful investigation, ; to be nothing but varieties. In one case, that of Gercuon ; n%gnce^s, the same insect had been described under seven I cliiierent names by the same naturalist. i i

CHAPTER VII.

Lamelligobnes.

This chapter will be given to that very important group of insects, the Lamellicoen Beetles, popularly called Chafebs. The former term is composed of two Latin words signifying ‘ leaf-horned,’ and is applied to these Beetles because the club of the antennae is composed of a series of flat plates or leaves, are movable like the rays of a fan, except in the Stag Beetle and its kin. The antennae are always short, with a long basal joint, and set near the eyes and in front of them. or large If the reader should have skill to open an insect, he is strongly recommended to do so, in order to see the singular manner in the large and apparently heavy bodies of these insects which are lightened by a great number of air-vessels connected with These air-vessels extend all over the the breathing tubes. body, and are found even in the head.

The larvae are fat, fleshy, soft-skinned grubs, feeding on though not always, in a state of vegetable matter, mostly, ; and the last segment of the body is much larger than decay After they are full-fed, they make cocoons from the others. wood or other fragments of the material on which the chips of been feeding ; and therein await their change into they have the pupal and perfect form.

of the Lamellicornes is the CetoniidjB, or

The first family We have but few examples of these Rose Beetle family. in England, and one or two of them are very beautiful insects the antennae are short, and liave only ten rare. In this family forming the club. The body is broad, joints, three of them flattened and not quite long enough to reach and the elytra are A very familiar example of this the end of the abdomen. on Plate V. Fig. 1, namely, the common Rose family is given Beei’Le [Getonia aurata).

In tMs genus there is a curious structure of the epimera, or : side pieces, of the metathorax, which are largely developed, so i that they act upon the bases of the elytra, and prevent the insect ^ from opening them widely. Any of my readers who has j watched a Eose Beetle flying must have noticed that, although |: the wings are very ample, the elytra are scarcely opened at all, I so that they cover some portion of the lower wings ; whereas j Beetles generally hold the elytra well elevated, and out of the I way of the wings. The edges of the elytra are deeply waved in . this genus.

This is a truly handsome insect. The upper surface of the 1 body is beautiful shining-green, glossed with gold. The elytra I have a number of impressed dots and curved marks scattered 1 irregularly over them, and towards the apex are a number of I scattered whitish marks, very variable in size, hue, number, and

shape, according to the individual insect. Below, it is bright

polished-copper.

The perfect Beetles are generally to be found in roses,

especially the white and wild roses, which they are thought to

damage m some degree. Gardeners W an objection to these

Beetles, because they are apt to settle upon the flower of the

strawberry, and devour just those parts by which the fruit is produced. In the south of England, the privet blossom is a favourite resort rf these Beetles. The larva, however, does not content itself with such light diet as rose-leaves, but lives on the less poetical but more substantial nourishment afforded by decaying wood, m which it remains for three years. One of these larva IS shown on Plate V. at Fig. 6, as it appears when «tten wood at the mo3Th ? is hv 1 ’’5' >'«f'’renoe to the plate, it

Ln 0?^“““ m attractive-looking creature, and gLs no

wfll soon d'evll^e body r ““ of larva is foun?int’ of Zu ^ t “00 which has gained for it the name laree * ^ Z P™i>aMy takes advantage of the large quantity of wood-chips, bits of straw, fir-leaves and find Ti “ofonal, with which the ants make their nest • and

Page 23 of 117