62 PLAY E; GLX 1 
The transformation of any infeét from one flate 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 
aftonifsing, that they feem to demand more than ordinary attention; 
and of this defcription we confider the fubje€t of the annexed plate: 
If we {peak of it as to its manners colleftively, one peculiarity im- 
plies a coutradiétion of the other, for it is an aquatic, a terreftrial, | 
and an ‘aerial creature. Few infeéts that inhabit the watém.gitt tae 
perfeét flate ever quit it; and the generality of thofe whofe larve 
live in that element could exift for a few minutes only in it, after 
they become winged infeéts; this 1s particularly noticed of the Libel- | 
lula, Phryganee, Ephemere, Tipule, and an immenfe variety of other 
infe€is that are bred in the water; but it appears this infe€t in the 
larva flate can leave the water without injury, and in the laft ftate, 
though a winged creature, it lives for the moft 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 Jarva flate 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- 
circular, fharp-pointed forceps. It is very alert in the water, and 
when it takes its prey, which confifts Sf {maller aquatic infects, it 
plunges thefe weapons into them, and through a minute aperture, at the 
extremity, it extras all their juices. When the time arrives in 
which it is to become a pupa, it leaves the water and forms a cavity 
joft below the furface of the earth of an oval form: how long it re- 
mains in this cavity in the pupa flate is uncertain, The beetle comes 
forth in May. Ler 
Much doubt has arofe refpefting the female of this fpecies ; Lin- 
nzus, in the Syftema Nature, defcribed the fuppofed female as 
B Dyfticus Semiftriatus, Fabricius, inthe Species InfeCtorum, adds a 
Jong lit of fynonyms from different entomological writers, feveral of 
whom had figured or deferibed it as a diftingt {fpecies before the time 
of Linnzus, and fome fubfequent authors have held the {ame opinion ; 
but in the laft work, Entomologia Syflema, Fabricius confiders it to be 
~ the 
