1913.] 33 



minute joints, gradually narrowing towards tip ; pro-, meso-, and metathorax 

 broad, with sides rounded, the body becoming gradually narrowed behind the 

 metathorax ; last abdominal segment small, truncate at apex ; three pairs of 

 legs present, each ending in a single long claw. Colour dark brown to blackish 

 above, dirty white below, except sides and apical end which are fuscous ; legs 

 pale brown." The larvae remain clinging to the sides of the drains, particularly 

 at the corners where it is dark and shady. They run qviickly up and down the 

 sides of the drains at the bottom, biit they are much lighter than water and 

 cannot remain tinder the surface without clinging to some support, and when 

 forced to let go their hold, they rise quickly to the .surface. Occasionally they 

 float placidly on their backs. Eesijiration is iierial, the larva taking in air 

 through the tip of its body ; it riins up the sides of the drains and when close 

 to the surface tarns upside down, exposing the tip of the body to the air ; when 

 going below the svirface it carries a bubble of air attached to its hinder end. 

 When under water the larva protrudes from the distal end of the body a number 

 of processes ; they are slender finger-shaped, thin-walled sacs, pale white in 

 colour ; their function is not clear, probably they are connected with tlie jirocess 

 of respiration. The larvae are carnivorous, feeding on small insects. When 

 about to pupate the larva leaves the water and buries itself in the mud, where 

 it makes a small hole in which it pupates. They have been observed in the 

 drains around the college buildings at Pusa from the beginning of the hot 

 weather to the commencement of the cold season. The larva and pupa of 

 various other aquatic Coleoptera are described and figured by Mr. Nowrojee in 

 the same publication, viz., Eunectes sticticus, Hyphydriis renardi, Hypophorus 

 aper, Hydrophilus sp., Helochares sp., Sternolophusunicolor, and Dineutes U7iiden- 

 tatus. — G. C. Champion: December, 1912. 



Acythopeus (Baridius) aterrimus, C. Waterh., in the orchid-house at Keiv. — 

 Some time ago my son found an interesting weevil in the flower of a Venezuelan 

 orchid, Cataset^im splendens, at Kew Gardens. The insect proves to be a male 

 of Baridius aterrimus, C. Waterh. [Ent. Mo. Mag., X, pp. 226, 227 (1874)], 

 described from examples sent by Mr. Jamie from Singapore, wliere it was said to 

 be destructive to I'halsenopsis and other orchids. In the British Museum there 

 are also other examples of it, found in conservatories at Torquay, Tunbridge 

 Wells, and Oxford, the one from Torqviay being labelled as found on Dendrobium. 

 The species can quite well be placed in Acythopeus, Pasc, for the present ; but 

 it may be stated that tlie five eastein species referred by Pascoe to his genus 

 have the femora unarmed, whereas in B. aterrimus tliey are toothed. 

 Mr. Waterhouse apparently overlooked tli;' sharp tooth on tlie inner edge of the 

 intermediate tibia? in the male, visible in one of liis types ; the rostrum, too, is 

 rugose in this sex to the tip. Mr. Froggatt, some years ago, examined one of 

 the Singapore specimens of B. aterrimus and pronoiinced it to be B. orchivora, 

 Blackb. ; but a comparison of the types shows this is not really the case, tliough 

 the two forms are very closely allied. Dendrobium and Phalsenopsis are eastern 

 genera of orchids, Catasetum is American. B. orchivora has doubtless been 

 introduced into Australia. — G. C. Champion : January, 1913, 



