60 
aquatic plants themselves, and to which an occasional bath, when 
they drop from their food-plant at the approach of danger, seems to offer 
no inconvenience whatever. Such a species is Ht/pera polhi.r, which, 
with its variety alter nan s, lives upon the cress-like Umbellifer known 
to botanists as Hdosciadmn. 1 have observed that these two forms, 
although apparently so very unlike, do, as a matter of fact, inter- 
copulate freely, and it seems extraordinary that they still maintain 
their distinctive coloration. They are confined to a space of a few 
yards in a single ditch, and the prettily striped form which our pioneer 
English coleopterist, Stevens, called alternant, in allusion to the 
alternating light and dark lines on the wing-cases, is, I am glad to 
say, as well represented numerically as its more sober relative, //. polln.r. 
Out in the marsh, but seldom far from the side of the ditch, a few 
passes with the sweep net will often bring to light another species of 
Hjipera, If. suspidosa, which is very different in colour and shape 
from its relatives, being, at least in the female, more robust, and 
distinguishable otherwise by the characteristic white mark on the 
suture of the elytra (or wing-cases) below the centre. 11 . rariabilis, a 
smaller species, but reminiscent at first sight of a battered H. tuspiciota, 
very occasionally puts in an appearance in the net, together with the 
pretty little velvety-green II. niprirostrix, which, however, is not such 
a favourite with me personally as it would be if its colouring-scales 
were less fugitive. 
The group of weevils I have just mentioned are all of a fair size. 
But amongst the struggling mass of insects of all orders brought up 
by the net, we shall find numerous objects which at first sight appear 
to bo merely little balls of dirt. Presently, however, these objects 
begin to move, out come three pairs of legs, a long slender snout 
emerges, and slowly and with dignity these little weevils of the genera 
Ceut/iorrhj/ncJiut or Crntliorr/u/ncliident, begin to move towards the 
margin of the net. Perchance in so doing they are upset by more 
active insects, if so, they immediately withdraw their legs and rostrum 
into the grooves fitted on the under-surface of the body to receive 
them, and again lie motionless for a while. By far the largest number 
of these weevils will be of a reddish or greenish-grey colour with a 
paler spot at the scutellum. This species is common all over the 
marsh, and its larva must either be attached to some very common 
plant, or, not improbably, feeds on several different plants. Besides 
this species, we shall very occasionally notice a jet black insect with a 
pure white roundish spot on the middle of each wing-case, and a 
narrow elongated one at the suture where the wing-cases join, this 
third spot being in a line with the other two, while at the base of the 
elytra is another less well defined spot. This pretty little species, 
which from its dark ground colour naturally shows up well against 
the white canvas of the net, rejoices in the name of < 'euthurrhiinclins 
asperit'oliarmn, and takes its specific name from being attached chiefly 
to the rough leaved Jlarai/inacme. It is by no means confined to 
marshes, and I have taken it in Surrey from the viper’s bugloss on a 
chalky hillside. Here in the marsh-fields, where 1 find it by no means 
common, I have beaten it from nettles in a dry ditch, and swept it in 
a damp hollow in close proximity to a watery ditch, where its food- 
plant may well have been the pretty little Veronica anapallit, the water 
speedwell. I once saw a specimen of ( '. axperifidiarum on a plant 
