THE PHILHYDRIDA. 83 



condemn us to remain a little longer in onr present 

 unromantic position^ like the souls of the unburied on 

 the banks of Styx. It is not impossible, indeed, that 

 when the reader discovers the nature of the objects to 

 which our next great step must lead us, he will scarce 

 regret his longer stay at the margin of the placid 

 pool. 



There is still a considerable group of beetles which 

 find a home beneath the waters, and although a good 

 many of these exhibit a certain amount of resem- 

 blance both in form and habits to the Dytici, they 

 always present characters of sufficient importance to 

 enable them to be distinguished with great facility. 

 One of the most striking of these consists in the 

 clubbed extremities of the short antennae, which 

 usually have the last four -joints greatly thickened. 

 The legs are rarely so much compressed as in the 

 Hydradephagaj and in many cases they can scarcely 

 be described as swimming legs, even in insects which 

 pass their whole lives in the water ; the mandibles are 

 powerful, but concealed, when closed, beneath the 

 front of the head; the outer lobe of the maxillse is 

 not palpiform, but as a general rule the maxillary 

 palpi are of great length, often longer than the an- 

 tennae, whence the name of Palpicornes has been 

 applied to these insects by Latreille, and many other 

 French entomologists. Our English authors, and 

 many of the continental writers, however, arrange 

 with these insects some curious beetles, which agree 

 with them in their general conformation, although 

 destitute of the elongated maxillary palpi ; and as the 

 majority of the insects thus brought together are 

 either strictly aquatic in their habits, or found only in 

 the immediate neighbourhood of water, the name of 



