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Notes on Water Beetles. 



By C. H. Roberts. 



The occasional finding of a single specimen of some so-called 

 Western species in the East or South has been sometimes noted, and is 

 easily accounted for. Like, for instance, the writer's taking a specimen 

 of Chrysohothris exesa near the New York Central R. R. tiacks in N. Y. 

 City, which was undoubtedly conveyed there in a freight car or in lumber. 

 But it is not usual to find such species in numbers nor continuously. 



Bennington County, Vermont, has proved to me unique in this 

 respect. 



Three seasons ago I took a single specimen of Cnemido/iis callosns 

 there, and last season two specimens more were taken. I have also taken 

 five specimens o'i Dcronectes strialeUiis. Heretofore I have known these 

 two only from the West and South-west. 



I have also taken three examples of an undescribed species of Hy- 

 droporus, found previously, so far as 1 can learn, only at or near Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



Last, but not least remarkable. Dr. Horn has just determined for 

 me, from the same locality, Manchester, Vt. , Limnebius piccus, "known 

 only from California !'' Of this species I have taken twelve or fifteen 

 specimens, and it can not therefore be chance, but is certainly remark- 

 able distribution. 



This locality has proved an Eldorado, as far as water beetles, in a 

 broad sense, are concerned. I am a very busy man, unfortunately for 

 my collection, and a short vacation during the Summer is about all the 

 time I have to devote to collecting ; yet m three seasons I have turned 

 up mnely-sevefi species. My son, a mere lad, but an enthusiastic col- 

 lector, captured during last season forty odd species, among them up- 

 wards of 250 specimens of Cnemidoiiis edenlidus, so that I am rather 

 " long" of that stock. ParnidcB are usually looked for uj)on sticks, bits 

 of wood or bark, and under stones, &c., in swift running streams, but 

 it has not been my experience to find them" there exclusively. There is 

 cpiite a body of water at ]\Ianchester, called Dead Pond, which ap- 

 parently has neither inlet nor outlet, and is as still and dead as a pond 

 can be. Here I find, each season, two or three species oi Ebnis, cling- 

 ing to the stems of moss. 



The moss also yields many of the smaller Dyiiscidoe, &c. I have 

 found a net made from common, though stout, cheese cloth best, as it 

 drains easily and none of the small things escape. I have taken in a 

 single haul, from a ditch not over eight inches deep, and barely wide 

 enough to admit a net, literally hundreds of specimens ; and they were 



