OO INSECTS AT HOME. 



occur in the summer, the pupa changes into a Beetle in u 

 fortnight or a few days more, according to the warmth of the 

 weather ; but if the larva should retire within its cell in the 

 autumn, it remains dormant during the winter, and does not 

 appear until the following spring. As is the case with dark- 

 coloured Beetles generally, the newly-developed insect is very 

 light in colour and soft in texture, not assuming its hard, dark 

 coat of mail until the expiration of some days. 



There ai'e altogether six British species of this genus. 



We now pass on to another genus, of which nineteen species 

 are acknowledged to inhabit England, and will take, as our 

 example, Agabus bipunctatus, a figure of which is given on 

 Woodcut No. VI. Fig. 1. 



It has already been mentioned that the Dyticidoe inhabit 

 equally running or still water, and that they may be found indis- 

 criminately in rivers and ponds. Still, some species prefer the 

 still, and others the running waters, and the latter insects are 

 almost always of brighter colour than the former. Such is the 

 case with the pretty little Beetle which is now before us. The 

 head is yellow in front, and black on the crown, with two rust- 

 red spots, sometimes fused into one, and sometimes so faint 

 as to be scarcely visible. The thorax is yellow, with the ex- 

 ception of two round black spots on the disc. These sometimes 

 are fused together, like those of the head. The elytra are pale- 

 yellow, diversified with small black-brown streaks, a brighter 

 yellow spot near the middle, and a stripe of the same colour 

 down the suture, and upon the lateral margins. 



Passing over several genera we come to a Beetle which is 

 shown on Woodcut No. VI. Fig. 2. It is called Hydrojporus 

 duodecim-pustulatus, and is selected as an example of a very 

 large genus, containing between forty and fifty species. All 

 the Beetles of this genus have tlieir bodies much flattened, 

 and the tarsi of the first and middle pairs of legs with four 

 joints, while those of the hind pnir have five joints. The two 

 first joints of tlie antennae are rather longer than the others. 



They are all small Beetles, and the present species is jjerhaps 

 the largest of its fellows, though it is, on an average, only a 

 quarter of an inch in length. Tlie colour of the head is dvll 



