92 MODERN CLASSIFICATION OF INSECTS. 



Elaphri and Notiophili, whilst other groups approach Trechus, amongst 

 the Harpalides ; indeed, Latreille and other French authors have 

 placed the last-named genus in this subfamily ; Brulld even giving to 

 it the name of Trechides, although it ought evidently to be termed 

 Bembidiides, Bembidium being certainly the typical genus. The 

 minute size of some of the aberrant Harpalides appears to prove the 

 propriety of considering the Bembidiides as a distinct subfamily, 

 Nature evidently, in the former insects, departing from one typical 

 form towards another; thus, in some of the genera allied to Trechus, 

 placed at the end of the Harpalides, are found the maxillary palpi, 

 terminated by an acute conical joint, which, in the typical Bembidiides, 

 is very minute and pointed, and the size of the insects reduced to 

 that of the Bembidiides. This peculiar structure of the palpi and 

 minuteness of size are again exhibited in the genera at the head of 

 the Dyticidae ; and hence, as well as from the subaquatic habits of the 

 present group, it has been considered that the Bembidiides and Ha- 

 liplus formed the connecting links between the land and water pre- 

 daceous beetles. Many of the species are well figured by Sturm in 

 his Deutchslands Fauna. 



These insects are generally found upon the margins of streams, 

 running about with great velocity, and burying themselves in crevices 

 in the ground or under stones, &c. ; hence at the time of high floods in 

 winter the floating refuse is crowded with them, at which time the col- 

 lector will not fail to obtain a rich harvest. They prey upon other in- 

 sects as well as upon dead animal matter ; thus Cillenum laterale, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Haliday (^Ent. 3Iag. vol. iv. p. 251.), is common under 

 stones and tufts of sea weed on the Irish sea sands near low-water 

 mark, and preys on Talitrus locusta, seizing it by the soft parts of the 

 vmder side, and in this way being able singly to master game many 

 times its own bulk, A great part of its existence is passed under the sea, 

 and the mode in which it obtains the necessary supply of oxygen 

 during its prolonged submersion is similar to that adopted by Aepus 

 fulvescens. The fore legs of Cillenum are very strongly spined, and in 

 addition to the ordinary structure, the notch of the tibiae is armed at 

 its extremity with two spines at right angles below the notch, between 

 which the end of the moveable spine at the basal angle of the notch is 

 received, a structure evidently adapted to its mode of life. 



Tachypus Andreas, one of the most beautiful and rarest species, is 

 often found feeding upon dead carrion on the coast of Ireland, as I am 



