6 ON ENTOMOLOGY. 



it suddenly exudes a yellowish moisture, (from whence it takes its name.) 

 The female deposits her eggs in a heap beneath the surface of the ground, 

 from these are hatched the larvae, which find subsistence bv attaching 1 



./ o 



themselves to other insects, and absorbing their juices. 



The GYRINUS NATATOR, or Whirligig Beetle. The following lively 

 account of the manners of this species, is given by a popular writer : 

 water, quiet, still water, affords a place of action to a very amu- 

 sing little fellow, which about the middle of April, if the weather 

 be tolerably mild, we see gamboling upon the surface of the sheltered 

 pool, and every schoolboy who has angled for minnows in the brook, 

 is well acquainted with this merry swimmer, in his shining black jacket; 

 retiring in the autumn and reposing all the winter in the mud at the 

 bottom of the pond, it awakens in the spring, rises to the surface and 

 commences its summer sports ; they associate in small parties of ten or 

 a dozen near the bank, where some little projection forms a bay, or 

 renders the water particularly tranquil, and here they will circle round 

 each other without contention, each in his sphere and with no apparent 

 object from morning until night, with great sprightliness and animation, 

 and so lightly do they move on the fluid as to form only some faint and 

 transient circles on its surface. Very fond of society we seldom see 

 them alone, or if parted by accident they soon rejoin their busy com- 

 panions. One pool commonly affords space for the amusement of 

 several parties, yet they do not unite or contend, but perform their cheer- 

 ful circlings in separate family associations ; if we interfere with their 

 merriment, they seem greatly alarmed, disperse or dive to the bottom, 

 when their fears shortly subside, as w r e soon again see our little merry 

 friends gamboling as before. This plain, tiny, gliding, Water Flea, 

 seems a very unlikely creature to arrest our young attentions ; but the 

 boy with his angle has not much to engage his notice, and the social 

 active parties of this nimble swimmer, presenting themselves at these 

 periods of vacancy, become insensibly familiar to his sight, and by 

 many of us are not observed in after life without recalling former hours, 

 scenes of perhaps less anxious days for trifles like these, by reason of 

 some association are often remembered, when things of greater moment 

 pass off and leave no trace upon the mind. 



BUPRESTIS CHRYSIS and BUPRESTIS STERNICORNIS. The former of these 

 Beetles is of a brown colour, the head and thorax are of a brilliant golden 

 green, it is a native of the East Indies in some parts of which it appears 

 to be rather common. The latter is of a bright green colour with golden 

 reflections, likewise an inhabitant of the East Indies. A few species of 

 buprestidtf. inhabit this country, but their proper geographical position is 

 within the tropics, where they may be seen flying about in great numbers 

 in the open parts of the forests and on the margin of rivers, or reposing 

 the trunks or leaves of trees, as if enjoying the heat of the meridian sun, 

 which is reflected with great brilliancy from their polished surfaces. 



CETONIA AURATA or Rose Beetle. Rosel informs us, that he kept the 



