Spcrrhois.] iiYDRormi.iD.K 233 



tliis species is described and. figured b}^ Cussac, Ann. Fr. 1852, p. 617, 

 ri. xiii., Fig. 8-15 ; the young larva and its habits are also described by 

 myself (with figures by Rev. A. Matthews) in Ent. Monthly Mag. xix. 

 7i) ; the female carries her eggs in a bag attached to the abdomen until 

 they are hatched; she is able to produce several batches of eggs in 

 succession without the intervention of the male, as observed by M. 

 Cussac ; the full-grown larva is remarkable for its large head and very 

 powerful mandibles, pear-shaped mentum, and the peculiar shape of its 

 body, which is widest in tlie middle, and thence contracted both ways so 

 that it appears diamond-shaped ; the segments are furnished on each 

 side with a large tuft of hairs ; the legs are rather long ; the larvie are 

 carnivorous, and in confinenu^nt prey upon one another; they walk upon 

 the surface of the water back downwards, like the perfect insect ; the 

 perfect insect has the power of producing rather a strong stridulatory 

 noise. 



S. emarg-inatus, Schall. Oval, very convex, of a dirty testaceous 

 brown colour with the head, except front which is obscurely reddish, 

 and the thorax, except margins, dark ; the elytra also are furnished with 

 distinct dark markings at suture, and more obscure ones at sides; head 

 and thorax coarsely and irregularly punctured, the former large, raised 

 at the sides, the latter short, twice as broad as long ; elytra rather 

 strongly punctured in somewhat irregular rows, completely covering 

 abdomen, with indistinct traces of raised lines ; legs lighter or darker 

 brown or pitchy. L. 5|-7 mm. 



Until quite recently this lias been considered one of the rarest British insects ; 

 Stephens records it tVoni Windsor. York, Kensing'tDn Gardens, and Yaxley Fen, but 

 only two or thi'ee British specimens were extant in collections, until in 1878 Mr. 

 Bilhips found it in a ditch adjoininsr some marshy ji^round at Wist Ham, Ksse.v ; in this 

 ]ilace he subseipieutly took a cousideraljle number of siiecinuns ; the localitv how- 

 ever, has since been destroyed by a railway ; the insect appears to live at the roots of 

 aquatic phiuts in tlie muddiest and dirtiest ditches, and probably escapes notice owing 

 to its retired habits, 



HELOPHORINA. 



Thi.s trilie, as here constitute<l, comprises the single genus IIch>}ih(rru.-< ; 

 by some authors the genus Octhehiiis with, its allies IIi/'Jn>r/nts and 

 llijilmna are included in it, but these may be distin_i^uishcd by tlie 

 short second joint of the posterior tarsi and the sculpture of the thorax, 

 as well as by tlieir very ditierent form. 



H&XiOPHORUS, Fabricius. 

 The species lielongiiig to this g.ntis have a very distinct appearance; 

 tlie body is oblong and rather depressed, and the surface of the tliorax 

 is furiushed with broad longitudinal furrows ; the colour is usually dirty 

 brown, or testaceous, sometimes dark bronze, the head and thorax ])ein" 

 in some species strongly iridescent; the head is sunk in the thorax, the 

 anterior angles of which arc projecting; the nine-jointed antennae are 



