Irish Insects. 1 9 



The lecturer said he found very often that people were greatly- 

 astonished to hear of beetles living in water ; however, there 

 are plenty of them, and they are very interesting in their 

 habits. We must bear in mind that water-beetles are 

 amphibious — they can swim about underneath, and can also 

 walk on land or fly in the air. They are furnished with 

 ample wings, and can fly a considerable distance. This amuse- 

 ment they indulge in mostly at night, though he has seen 

 them flying in the bright sunshine, and that is one reason 

 why persons who have fresh-water aquariums which are not 

 covered are so apt to lose the beetles which are in the aquarium. 

 It is related that a gentleman once found that the panes of 

 glass in the roof of his green-house were broken without his 

 being able to discover the cause. He watched very carefully to 

 catch the culprit, and at last very early one summer morning, 

 and soon after sunrise, he heard a crash on the glass, and on 

 running up to the spot he found on the floor a large water- 

 beetle. Of course he was very much surprised, but it was ex- 

 plained to him that the beetle must have mistaken the glass for 

 water, and, shutting up its wings, dropped down from a height, 

 and thus broke the pane. 



Our Irish list contains a very good proportion of the water- 

 beetles, and can boast of some which are very rare elsewhere. 



Having dealt with other classes of insects, the lecturer said 

 he trusted that the outline which he had endeavoured to place 

 before them might have the effect of stimulating the curiosity 

 of some of them, and making them take up the study of their 

 native insects. He was especially anxious to get some one to 

 take up the coleoptera, which is a most interesting order, and 

 will well repay any trouble taken with them. The British 

 list contains more than three thousand species, and of these 

 955 have been recorded as Irish. Mr. Halliday's list contains 

 528 species, and he has collected up to the present upwards of 

 700 species ; so we can see what hard work will do. 



