Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . Fig. 1/1. Amphitetras antedilunnna. August 1,1S66.] SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 183 WATER-BEETLES. HAVING recently bad in my possession a largeaquarium stocked with several species ofcommon British water-beetles, I have had consider-able opportunity for watching their various actionsand habits; among which the activity which theydisplay in chasing and fixing on their prey, andtheir extreme voracity, are certainly the most re-markable. To the Dytiscus marginalis nought seemsto come amiss ;lfor f
Hardwicke's science-gossip : an illustrated medium of interchange and gossip for students and lovers of nature . Fig. 1/1. Amphitetras antedilunnna. August 1,1S66.] SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 183 WATER-BEETLES. HAVING recently bad in my possession a largeaquarium stocked with several species ofcommon British water-beetles, I have had consider-able opportunity for watching their various actionsand habits; among which the activity which theydisplay in chasing and fixing on their prey, andtheir extreme voracity, are certainly the most re-markable. To the Dytiscus marginalis nought seemsto come amiss ;lfor fish, newts, small frogs, and evenfresh-water snails, all share the same fate whenplaced within the reach of this ravenous and power-ful insect. It frequently kills more than it is ableto consume, and when it has succeeded in destroy-ing every living object not belonging to its ownspecies, it will, without hesitation, fall upon those of. Fig. 1/2. Water-Beetles {Dytiscus marginalis). its own relatives which may happen to be confinedwith it. Indeed, sometimes the battles betweenthem are of a most furious and savage nature. Thepoor newt is obliged to succumb without much re-sistance ; for when its deadly enemy once obtains ahold, all its endeavours to shake it off are entirelyuseless. I have seen a Triton cristatits covered withas* many as three or four of these insects, besides anequal number of the Acilius sulcatits at the sametime, whilst the hapless reptile swam and dashedabout the water in the highest state of discomfiture,and, being unable to release itself, was obliged atlast to yield to the strong mandibles of its adver-saries. It is even difficult to separate their preyfrom them, so tightly do they cling to their Notonecta, or common boat-fly, is also exceed-ingly voracious, even darting at and seizing uponthe point of a penknife when presented to it whilstlying close to the surface of the water. If
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