1885.] 45 



three latter seemed perfectly at their case throughout ; the former, however, evi- 

 dently found great difficulty in diving, owing to the buoyancy of the water, and 

 remained almost entirely at the surface. 



Whether these insects would be found at large in salt water is another matter. 

 I have taken numbers of Helophori (four species) beneath seaweed upon the shore, 

 and it is possible that these may have inhabited, at any rate for a time, the perma- 

 nent pools which lie just below high water mark. On the other hand, however, I 

 have never been able to capture water-beetles in ditches directly connected with the 

 sea, although I have frequently endeavoured to do so, and have generally found that 

 water sufficiently saline to support seaweed is consistently avoided by insects. The 

 question of food has probably much to do with this fact, for as very few of the 

 aquatic insects take the water into their systems for purposes of respiration, the 

 presence of certain salts in the surrounding fluid can scarcely exercise any particular 

 influence upon them. But it may very well be that these insects, finding their food 

 in fresh water only, avoid salt water for that very reason, and that those which may 

 be occasionally found in saline pools, or even in the sea itself, have found their way 

 into so unusual a habitation owing to " circumstances over which they had no 

 control." — Theodoee Wood, Freeman Lodge, St. Peter's, Kent : June 4th, 1885. 



Coleojytera found in salt wafer. — Mr. C. Donovan's note in the June number of 

 this Magazine (p. 13), relative to the capture of Dytiscus marginalis in the sea, 

 recalls to my mind the circumstances under which I took the only Cyhister Roeselii 

 I have ever seen alive. About an hour before sunset one very warm evening in 

 August, 1876, while I was waiting for the ship's boat on the pier at Besika Bay, I 

 saw a large beetle on the wing, which at first sight I thought was one of the larger 

 £uprestidcB. To my surprise, it deliberately flew into the sea, close enough to the 

 pier to be caught by hand, and proved to be a <? specimen of the fine water-beetle 

 Cyhister Roeselii. There was no fresh water stream within a mile of the spot. 



At Kavala, Turkey, a large specimen of Hydrophilus jpiceus was caught in the 

 sea at a " seining party " (if I remember rightly, it was actually in the net among 

 the fish), and was given to me alive.— James J. Walker, H-M.S. "Cherub," 

 Portland : June 15th, 1885. 



[Seeing Mr. Donovan's note above referred to, I remembered that Mr. Walker 

 had told me about his capture of Cyhister Roeselii, and i therefore wrote and asked 

 him for further particulars, which he kindly sent me. Although the fact of the 

 three beetles having been taken in salt water is curious, yet nothing is proved by it ; 

 the DytiscidcB have strong wings, and can fly a considerable distance, and that they 

 cannot instinctively tell their right element is proved by the fact that they so often 

 mistake glass for water. Every Coleopterist who possesses a greenhouse or hotbed 

 in the country must be aware of this ; much less then can they be expected to tell 

 the difference between salt water and fresh. They are, too, very tenacious of life, 

 and can live for some time in a medium that would be far more injurious to them 

 than salt water. The occurrences related are evidently purely accidental ; although 

 taking into consideration the curious Hemipteron Halobates, there is no reason why 

 we might not expect to find Coleoptera also inhabiting the sea as their native 

 element. — W. W. Fowlee.] 



