THE EUPODA, OR PHYTOPHAGA. 
205 
and a few are exceedingly variable in colour, speci- 
mens of all shades from dull black to light brass 
being seen together, the intermediate examples exhi- 
biting beautiful shades of dark and light blue, green, 
copper, purple, and red : there are, in fact, few 
prettier objects than the broad leaf of a water-lily, 
rippled over by the clear stream, and studded with 
these living gems (which, beautiful in death, are a 
thousand times more so when alive), basking in the 
summer sun. 
Our other genus, Heemonia, has long straggling 
legs, the apical joint of the tarsi being very long and 
prehensile. Both the species are found on water- 
plants ( Zostera and Potamogeton ) , even beneath the 
surface; but II. Curtisii (Plate XIV., Fig. 2) is by 
far the most common. II. equiseti has occurred 
in flood-refuse near Burton-on-Trent, but very few 
British examples are known. They have the antennm 
inserted close together, and the apex of the elytra 
produced into a spine. 
The Criocerina have the eyes emarginate, with the 
antennae inserted within their front inner margin ; the 
mandibles truncate at the tip, with two or three acute 
teeth, and the labium entire. 
We possess three genera, Zeugophora, Lema, and 
Crioceris ; the two first of which do not l’equire any 
especial remark, the only peculiarity about either of 
them being that Z. subspinosa, a little blue-black 
insect with reddish head and thorax, found on aspens, 
has a wary habit of folding up its legs and dropping, 
on the approach of the net. 
The species of Crioceris are, however, more con- 
spicuous, both from appearance and economy. One 
