WATER BEETLES. 07 



After examining carefully a vast number 'of foreign Water 

 Beetles, I find that they are so exactly like our own familiar 

 insects in size, shape, colour, and habits, that three examples 

 will be quite sufficient to illustrate the whole of the Hydra- 

 dephaga, numerous though they be. 



The species which is shown in the illustration, Dyticus latis- 

 dmus, is certainly the most conspicuous of these Beetles, and 

 yet, as the reader may see, does not differ remarkably from our 

 '.ommon Dyticus marqinalis. 



Fig. 26.— Dyticus latissiimis. 

 (Brown, orange lines.) 



The colours are the same, though perhaps rather brighter. 

 The ground hue is very dark brown with an infusion of green, 

 and this, besides orange, is the only colour. Round the edges 

 of the thorax runs a band of orange, so as to leave a nearly 

 square dark patch in the middle. Along the outer edge of the 

 elytra there is a similar band, and there is another a little way 

 inside it, running from the base of the elytron to the point, and 

 rapidly becoming narrower as it approaches the tip. This 

 second stripe forms the most conspicuous portion of the colour- 

 ing, and is well shown in the illustration. There is also near 

 the tip of the elytra a very faint and undefined stripe of orange 

 drawn diagonally across, and looking as if it had been made 



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