Fer 13, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



121 



common insect. It is about j;-inch long, of clep^nt shape, 

 ha%"ing quite the air of one of the t'/iV- of coh^optorous 

 society, and with rather long and slender logs, iudiciitive 

 of agility and speed. It is a very chameleon in colour, 

 generally greenish or coppery, but the exact hue depending 

 on the direction in which it is looked at, and down the 

 outer edge of its wing-cases runs a narrow, pale yellowish- 

 white marginal band. Though clad in splendid attire, it is 



Fi?. 1. — Anchomenus marginatus. Fig. 2. — Elaphrus riparins. 



a hard-hearted and merciless being, and many are the 

 small beetles that have cause to rue the day on which it 

 first a]ipears amongst them ; in fact, what with this and 

 other predaceous insects, the bank we have imagined is a 

 terrible scene of warfare and carnage ; and, though all 

 seems so peaceful to our dull senses, yet could we but 

 improve our auditory powers to microphonic acuteness, we 

 should hear the crunching of hard corselets on every hand, 

 as the smaller and weaker mail-clad forms fall one after 

 the other under the jaws of their more powerful assailants. 

 Several other Anchomfin may often be found in similar 

 situations, though few of them can make such pretensions 

 to beauty, except in form. 



Anchomenus manjinalus is rivalled in elegance by two 

 very peculiar beetles, whose full splendour, however, does 

 not appear till they are viewed with a lens. They are 

 called Ekiphrus ripnrius and cvpreits. The former (Fig. 

 ■2) is dull bronze green, and the latter deep purplish 

 brown, and both have on their roughl)' shagreened wing- 

 cases a number of curious oval depressions, which in the 

 former species are of a lovely violet colour. Their eyes 

 are very prominent, as is often the case with moisture- 

 loving insects, and their legs are exti-emely slender for 

 such comparatively bulky creatures. They dart about 

 with great agility, ever and anon suddenly stopping, and 

 then as suddenly dashing off again at full speed. 



Mud flats and the margins of ponds and streams aro 

 excellent localities for the large genus of carnivorous 

 beetles called Be/uhidhua. It contains nearly fifty British 

 species, which are amongst the smallest of our terrestrial 

 predaceous beetles. They are elegantly formed, very hard, 

 brightly polished beings, usually dark-coloured, and often 

 having four yellow spots occupying more or Icfs of their 

 wing-cases. One of the commonest of these is B. quadri- 

 gvMaium, a most brilliantly polished, dark greenish-blai k 

 insect, with four conspicuous yellow spots on its back. 

 The genus may be recognised and distinguished from most 

 others of the Geodephaga by the peculiar structure of their 

 maxillary palpi, the terminal joint of which is very slender 

 and pointed (Fig. .3). 



Of the rove-beetles, many very distinct types are repre- 

 sented ; the Steni, those little pox-marked creatures de- 

 scribed in the article referred to above, are here in full 

 force. These quaint little beings, encased in their hard, 

 unyielding armour, and with their long, stiff tail, have a 

 strikingly reptilian aspect, and would certainly serve very 

 well as models for the dragons at pantomimes ; and as they 

 go glaring about with their huge, prominent eyes, they 

 must look formidable objects to their tinier brethren in the 

 coleopterous world. Other genera, cylindrical in form, 



short-legged and broad-headed, excavate little burrows in 

 the mud, from which it is not easy to entice them. 





FiiJf. 3.— Maxill;u-y 



I'nlpua of 



Beinbidium. 



Fif,'. 4. — Saliia piiosollii. 



But the Hi'iiiiptcra also supply their quota to the 

 marginal fauna, especiilly from one family, the Saldida; 

 which contains only one British genus, Salda (Fig. ■!). 

 They are small, oval insects, blackish in ground colour, 

 with whitish or pale yellowish-white markings. They aro 

 some of the most active creatures imaginable, running with 

 great agility, and alternating this mode of progression with 

 .^hort jumps, or rather with what must be regarded as h.alf 

 jump, half flight. Hence they are the most tiresome thiugs 

 to catch ; if you try them with the net, they stick so close 

 to the ground that the difficulty is to get them into your 

 trap ; if you adopt the stalking nu tliod, and go down on 

 hands and knees (no very pleasant task on a mud-llat) and 

 stealthily pursue them, following up e.ach individual as ho 

 skips away, and aimiug at him with moistened finger every 

 time he settles, you will probably find that he is ofl' on 

 another jump long before your finger can be brought down 

 upon him ; and when at last, by a more careful stroke than 

 Usual, you have got him safely underneath the pursuing 

 digit, you probably find that the blow has been made too 

 heavily, and that, instead of securing contact between 

 yourself and your insect, you have simply made an oval 

 dent in the mud, at the bottom of which the poor creature 

 lies, half-embedded in the plastic material, as though you 

 were going to take a cast of him, and the chances are that, 

 as soon as you have extricated him, and are about to 

 transfer him to a pill box, he gives a hop, skip, and jump, 

 and disappears in a trice. So, much hunting yields but 

 few Saldas, and he who desires to cultivate the virtue of 

 patience, cannot do better than try a day's Salda-hunting. 

 The insects are gregarious, and are often very numerous in 

 suitable localities. There is no mistaking them ; their 

 family likenes.s is very strong, and there is no other 

 Ilemipterous insect with which they can be confounded. 

 Like the Elapliri and Steni amongst beetles, they have very 

 prominent eyes. They may be found in all tlidr stages in 

 the same localities during the summer montlis. Even 

 when young, they possess considerable jumping power, 

 though, of course, less than when fully grown, as they have 

 then no wings. 



Vast armies of flies, too, frequent mud flats, especially 

 whin the mud is none of the purest, and contains quan- 

 tities of decaying vegetable or animal matter. The flies 

 themselves swarm either on, or immediately over, the mud, 

 while their larvre, or maggots, live on the putrescent matter 

 it contains. If quantities of swampy mud, moss, dead 

 leaves, kc, be placed in a box with a glass cover, multi- 

 tudes (f flies will in couise of time hatch out, and will, no 

 doubt, greatly puzzle the student who desires to undertake 

 the formidable task of identifying them. 



Here we must bring to a clo.se this series of papers on 

 pond insects. The subject is a most extensive one, and 

 nothing more than a brief outline could here be attempted ; 

 ttill, it is hoped that enough has been said to induce some 



