54 COMMON BRITISH INSECTS. 



occur in the summer, the pupa changes into a Beetle 

 in a fortnight or a few days more, according to the 

 warmth of the weather ; but if the larva should retire 

 within its cell in the autumn, it remains dormant 

 during the winter, and does not appear until the 

 following spring. As is the case with dark -coloured 

 Beetles generally, the newly-developed insect is very 

 light in colour and soft in texture, not assuming its hard, 

 dark coat of mail until the expiration of some days. 



There are altogether six British species of this 

 genus. 



WE now pass on to another genus, of which 

 twenty-one species are acknowledged to inhabit 

 England, and will take, as our example, Agabus 

 bipunctatus, a figure of which is appended hereto. 



It has already been mentioned that the Dyticidae 

 inhabit equally running or still water, and that they 

 may be found indiscriminately in 

 rivers and ponds. Yet, some 

 species prefer the still, and others 

 the running waters, and the latter 

 insects are almost always of brighter 

 colour than the former. Such is 

 the case with the pretty little Beetle 

 which is now before us. The head 

 is yellow in front, and black on the 

 crown, with two rust-red spots, 

 biguttatus. sometimes fused into one, and 

 sometimes so faint as to be scarcely visible. The 

 thorax is yellow, with the exception of two round black 

 spots on the disc. These sometimes are fused to- 



