OF HARTING. 33! 



monest Water Beetles, inhabiting most of our stag- 

 nant waters. To these we may add Berosus hiridus, 

 Hydrotts picens and HydrcecJms Caraboides, met with 

 in our ponds and ditches. The male of the Dyticus 

 is distinguished by a remarkable expansion of each 

 of the two anterior tarsi, the underside of which, under 

 the microscope, is a very beautiful object, and proves 

 to be a very efficient apparatus of suckers, by means 

 of which the insect is enabled to hold on to a flat 

 polished surface very securely. We have seen the 

 Dyticiis circitmflexus anchored at arm's length, by 

 means of these organs, long after death, in a flat- 

 bottomed glazed vessel nearly full of water, the body 

 at the same time swaying to and fro as often as the 

 vessel was moved. The Gyrinus natator is that little 

 black shining gregarious beetle we so frequently see 

 in fine weather sportively whirling round and round, 

 in a maze of circles, on the surface of the water with 

 astonishing rapidity. 



Sphceridium bipustulatum and Sphceridium Cara- 

 boides frequent the droppings of herbivorous animals, 

 and Scaphidium quadri-maculatum we have found in 

 a rotten stump in the beech woods in the Park. The 

 Burying Beetle (Necrophorus Vespillo), whose singular 

 economy has deservedly been the theme of many a 

 writer on Entomology, finds frequent opportunities 

 here for the exercise of its admirable instinct. In its 

 perfect state it feeds on carrion, and it is also careful 

 to provide a larder, well-stocked with the same kind 

 of fare, for its young. This is the appointed sexton 

 for all the dead rats, moles, mice and small birds it 

 may find about to undergo decompositon on the sur- 

 face of any loose mould or sand. No sooner is a 

 carcase discovered by this sanatory official, than the 

 work of giving it a decent interment immediately 

 begins. With or without the assistance of others of 

 the same species, it laboriously scoops out the earth 

 from under the dead body until the latter gradually 



