40 INSECT LIFE IN POND AND STREAM 



grubs have a funny way of turning up their 

 heads and their tails ; and by this strange 

 habit you may always know the larvae of 

 the Great Water-beetle. 



In the spring-time and early summer in 

 nearly every shallow pool, covered with a soft 

 green carpet of duckweed, we are sure to find 

 numbers of the " Small Water-beetle " cling- 

 ing to the weeds or darting swiftly about in 

 the water. 



They are rather pretty little beetles, no 

 more than a quarter of an inch long, dressed 

 in suits of glossy black ; but as they carry a 

 film of air spread over the underside of their 

 bodies, just as the Great Water-beetles do, 

 the little creatures look like silvery bubbles 

 dancing in the water, as they dart backwards 

 and forwards across the pool. Every now and 

 then one of the little beetles will rise to the 

 surface, turn over on its back, and let its air- 

 bubble burst ; then, after resting upside down 

 for a minute or so drinking in the air, down it 

 plunges below again, taking a newly formed 

 air-bubble along with it. 



The Small Water-beetle also makes a little 

 cocoon to hold her eggs, but she does not add 

 a little mast to it as the Great Water-beetle 



