CHAPTER XL 



Wf ATER- BEETLES. 



T ■will be wise before introducing any beetles into an 

 ordinary aquarium to accustom them to feed upon 

 that food with which in the future they will be 

 provided — e.g., pieces of raw meat or garden-worms. AU 

 worms should be killed by dashing them suddenly to the 

 ground; their death is then painless. It is not a pleasant 

 sight to see a poor worm struggling and writhing while 

 in the clutches of several beetles. Most beetles, however, 

 though they may do, if carefully treated, little or no 

 harm to the usual inhabitants of a tank, are more interesting, 

 satisfactory, and ornamental in an aquarium which is entirely 

 given up to their use. 



Aquatic beetles are not only ornamental and very interest- 

 ing in an aquarium, but not a few of them are useful there. 

 All of them, however, are not suitable for the ordinary tank, 

 as some are too small and others too predaceous, but they — 

 both the smaU and the predaceous ones — are quite deserving 

 of a place in portable and separate aquaria, where their forms 

 and habits will afford much pleasure and instruction. Many 

 of these coleoptera which must not be trusted among defence- 

 less inhabitants of the watei-, will look well and thrive in 

 those vessels which are kept for beautiful and interesting 

 aquatic plants — plants, I mean, which are too choice or too 

 delicate to be trusted near hungry snails or strong and active 



