62 PLATE CLXI. 



The transformation of any infe6l from one Hate to another is both 

 curious and entertaining to an enlightened obferver ; yet there are a 

 few fpecies whofe manners are fo peculiar, and their changes fo 

 aftoni filing, that they feem to dernand more than ordinary attention ; 

 and of this defcription we confider the fubjeft of the annexed plate. 

 If we fpeak of it as to its manners colle6tively, one peculiarity im- 

 plies a contradiftion of the other, for it is an aquatic, a terreftrial, 

 and an aerial creature. Few infects that inhabit the water, in the 

 perfect ftate ever quit it ; and the generality of thofe whofe larvae 

 live in that element could exift for a few minutes only in it, after 

 they become winged infe£ls; this is particularly noticed of the Lihel- 

 lulcey Phryganea:, Ephemertz,TipuI<^., and an immenfe croud of other 

 infedsthat are bred in the water ; but it appears this infe6l in the 

 larva ftate can leave the water without injury, and in the lafl ftate, 

 though a winged creature, it lives for the mod part in the water, and 

 quits it only in the evenings; or when the pool dries up, it ufes its 

 wings in fearch of another. 



In the larva ftate it is not lefs remarkable for its favage difpofition, 

 than its formidable appearance. The whole body is covered with a 

 hard fhell, or coat of mail, and the head is armed with two long, femi- 

 clrcular, fliarp-pointed forceps. It is very alert in the water, and 

 when it takes its prey, which confifts of fmaller aquatic infe6ls, it 

 plunges thefe weapons into them, and through a minute aperture, at the 

 extremity, it extradls all their juices. When the time arrives in 

 which it is to become a pupa, it leaves the w^ater and forms a cavity 

 jufl below the furface of the earth of an oval form : how long it re- 

 mains in this cavity in the pupa ftate is uncertain. The beetle comes 

 forth in May. 



Much doubt has arofe refpe6ling the female of this fpecies ; Lin- 

 narus, in the Syftema Naturae, defcribed the fuppofed female as 

 /3 Dyfticus Semijlr'iatus, Fabriclus, in the Species Infeclorum, adds a 

 long lift of fynonyms from different entomological writers, feveral of 

 whom had figured or defcribed it as a diftinil fpecies before the time 

 of Linn^us, and fome fubfequent authors have held the fame opinion ; 

 but in the laft work, Entomologia Syfema,, Fabricius confidcrs it to be 



the 



