1890] THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



H3 



year after year from fallen leaves and summer dust, the haunt of the 

 water hen and rarer coot, and in winter of the snipe and the mallard. 

 Round them grow oaks of great size leaning across their still waters 

 and their borders are fringed with bulrushes and the yellow Iris. In 

 their depths have lived and died countless generations ot aquatic 

 insects. Therefore on their Coleopterous fauna we make our first 

 attack. 



Now a Coleopterist's water-net to be serviceable must be very 

 strong, no ring of cane will serve, but quarter inch iron wire bent in the 

 form of an isosceles triangle, the ends bent round and firmly clinched 

 into an ashen staff like a broom handle, the net of strong material and 

 bound on to the wire with leather. 



Such a net was ours, but our first pond gave little else than 

 Hydvoporus palustris, evythrocephalus, and planus, also Haliplus 

 ruficollis in profusion, and a few Hyphydrus ovatus, these are the 

 commonest water beetles of these ponds and with Agabus bipustulatus 

 and Sturmi are found in abundance in all of them. 



But crossing a field we tried another smaller pit and were rewarded 

 with three H. dovsalis and an Ilybius obscurus which turned out to be 

 the variety sexdentatus. Here H. inaqualis was most abundant (a 

 very difficult hydro to set satisfactorily) ; also L. hyalinus, or obscurus 

 according to Fowler. This is a very variable insect in colour, ranging 

 from light testacous to dark olive green and is subject to severe 

 attacks of the jumps, almost like an elater in the net. It can be dis- 

 tinguished most readily by its shape from minutus (interruptus) being 

 slimmer in build, but that insect seems to be rare here compared with 

 hyalinus. 



Of course we took the two common Agabi and in one pit several 

 H. lineatus but we failed to catch H. retiadatus although it occurs com- 

 monly or H. pictus, probably being too early in the year for either. 

 We have on other occasions taken from these pits the following 

 Hydradephaga besides those species we have mentioned : Haliplus 

 fulvus, and lineatocollis, Hydvoporus angustatus, lepidus, flavipes, de- 

 firessus, assimilis, Memnonius, Gyllenhalii nigrita, and vittula. Ilybius 

 aUr, Colymbetes fuscus, Agabus chalconatus, and Acilius sulcatus. 



Among the Palpicornia we also secured from another of these 

 ponds several Laccobius bipunctatus, the allied or as it was once con- 

 sidered type form Minutus not occurring here. In the same way we 



