50 INSECTS AT HOME. 



under stones in the mouths of tidal rivers, absohitely beneath 

 high-water mark. There are many insects which choose their 

 residence just above the tide-mark, but that any slio\ild prefer 

 to live below it, and be submerged by the salt water, is indeed 

 singular. Salt marshes are also favourite resorts for this 

 Beetle, which has been taken in various parts of England. 

 There is only one other species of this curious genus. 



The colour of the Beetle is yellowish, darker above than 

 below. The head has a curved impression on either side ; the 

 thorax has a short furrow on its centre, and a very shallow pit 

 on either side near the basal angles. The elytra are very 

 slightly punctated, and there are no wings. 



• 



We now come to the last family of the Geodephaga, namely, 

 the Bembidiidae. In all these Beetles ^he palpi are formed 

 dififerently from those of the preceding families. If the parts 

 of the mouth be carcfu'ly observed, the last joint but one both 

 of the maxillary and labial palpi will be seen to be very large, 

 while the last joint is very short and very small, so small indeed 

 that at first sight it looks more like a spua* than a separate joint. 

 All these insects are lovers of salt and wet places, and are found 

 on salt marshes near the mouths of tidal rivers, such, for example, 

 as those which cover the district between Rochester and Sheer- 

 ness, and upon the sea-shore itself. 



Small as they mostly are, one species, Bembidium bistriatum, 

 being the smallest of the British Geodephaga, they are ex- 

 ceedingly voracious, and can kill creatures much larger than 

 themselves. There is, for example, C'dleniwm laterale, a little 

 copper-coloured Beetle, which never exceeds one-sixth of an 

 inch in length and is generally much less, which, in spite of 

 its small size, feeds on the common sandhopper, seizing the 

 active crustacean under the body, and so destroying it. Like 

 the ^pys, which has already been described, this insect passes 

 much of its time submerged under salt water. 



In reference to the water-loving habits of thes^ Beetles, Mr. 

 Westwood gives a very useful hint to entomologists who wi.sh 

 to procure these tiny creatures: — ' These insects are generally 

 found upon the margins of streams, running about with great 

 velocity, and burying themselves in crevices in the ground or 

 tinder stones, &c. ; hence, at the time of high floods in winter, 



