36 MANDIBULATA. — COLEOPTERA. 



drate thorax, deeply excavated and more convex elytra, and in 

 other less conspicuous characters. 



Sp. 1. multipunctata. Nigro-cenea, nitida, limbo virescente, elytris punctato- 

 striatis,foveolisque duplici serie impressis. (Long. corp. 5^ — 7 lin.) 



Ca. multipunetatus. Linne. — Bl. multipunctata. — Steph. Catal. p. 42. No. 

 412. 



Of a deep blackish-bronze, slightly glossy, with the margins of the thorax and 

 elytra bright-green or coppery: head with a deep sinuated impression on 

 each side between the eyes, and a shallow transverse one behind ; the nape 

 with a few impressed dots : thorax shining, with some obsolete transverse 

 wrinkles, and the margins more or less punctate ; the dorsal line rather deep 

 and abbreviated anteriorly, with a transverse impression posteriorly, bordered 

 externally by an elevated fold: elytra slightly but irregularly punctate- 

 striated, each with two series of deep, impressed, shining, brassy fovese, the 

 first placed on the third, and the second on the fifth, interstice from the suture : 

 body dusky or coppery-brass beneath : legs black, tinged with brassy. 



Rather uncommon : I have taken a few specimens in Copen- 

 hagen-fields, running on the dry mud of ponds in the summer, and 

 also on a bank in Battersea-fields. I believe it occurs on the bor- 

 ders of Whittlesea Mere, and near Horning, in Norfolk. 



The aquatic Adephaga, or 



Subsection II. Hydradephaga, Mac Lea?/, 



Are thus, in general terms, characterized by him : — Legs formed for swimming, 

 the hinder having a horizontal motion only, the pectoral laminae into which 

 they are inserted being large: body ovate. Latreille, less generally, says, 

 legs proper for walking and swimming, the four posterior being compressed 

 and fringed ; the mandibles scarcely exserted ; the body oval, with the eyes 

 slightly prominent, and the thorax broader than long : the hook at the ex- 

 tremity of the maxillae curved at the base. 



The insects of this subsection differ chiefly from the former in 

 habit, from the element in which they reside being different; but 

 their devouring propensities are equal, if not superior, to any of 

 the foregoing, the larger and more typical species especially, which 

 are pre-eminently distinguished by their voracity and destructive- 

 ness : they all inhabit the water in their first and final states, and 

 subsist upon other aquatic insects, vermes, &c. ; they swim ad- 

 mirably in the water, but are compelled at intervals to ascend to 

 the surface for respiration ; when they may be observed, resting 

 obliquely, with the extremities of their elytra raised a little above 



