212 BykuhidvK. INSECTS. Hydkophiliu^. 
Tribe— PALPICORNES. 
seven species; Parnid^, with nine; and Georys- 
SIDA5, with one, like a small Byrrhus. 
The various species of Byrrhus when in danger, or 
Fig 78. 
when alarmed, pretend to be dead. Their legs are 
short and flat; they pack these legs so close to the 
Fig. 79. 
Tiresias serra and larva. 
body, and lie so completely motionless, that when on 
the ground they look like a small pebble or seed, or 
the dung of a small animal. It requires the eye of an 
Fig. 80. 
acute collector to recognize an insect in the apparently 
inanimate substance before him. The mottled appear- 
ance serves also much to conceal them. 
These insects were so called by Latreille, from the 
maxillary palpi being generally very greatly elongated. 
The woodcuts show the antenna and the maxilla, with 
Fig. 81. 
Ilydrochus elongatus— a tlie antenna ; h the maxillary palpus. 
its palpus, of two different genera, in which this char- 
acter is well marked. Figure 81 is that oiHydrochus 
elongatus; a the antenna; h the maxillary palpus. 
Family— HYDROPHILID^. 
The family Hydropiiilid^, divided into two fami- 
lies, Helophoridcs and Hydrophilidce, have ovate or 
ovate-oblong bodies. In one section the thorax is 
rough, in the other smooth. Fig. 82 is the Hydrmna 
testacea; a the antennae; b maxillary palpi. There 
are fifty-four British species, varying in size from the 
large Hydrous piceus to the small Laccobius minutus. 
The following genera are British ; — Spercheus, Hydro- 
elms, with its large hull-eyes ; Helopliorus, a genus of 
elongated form ; Ochthebius, with its short slender last 
joint to the maxillary palpi ; HydrcBtia (see fig. 82), in 
Fig. 82. 
Hydrsena testacea — a the antenna ^ h the maxillary palpus. 
which that same joint is much elongated ; Limnebius, 
Berosus, Laccobius, Hydrous, on which there are some 
particulars further on; Hydrophilus, Hydrobius, Phil- 
hydrus, and ChcBtarthria, with its very small species 
like a seed ((7. seminulum). 
Many of the insects of this family may be seen 
crawling on ditch banks; the species of the Helo- 
