. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TUE llYVIiUrMIlID^i:. 313 hiiul legs adapted for swimmings like the Dyticidre, from which tlie species are distinguished by their herbivorous habits, besides the fundamental difterences in their antennse and mouth organs. The tribe consists of one family only (Hydeophilid^), containing five subfamilies, of which four are water-insects, and the fifth, the Sphajridiinse, live on the dung of land animals. The aquatic series comprises the tine genus Hydrophilus, which vies with Dyticus in the size of its species. HydrojMlus ))iceus is a well-k
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. TUE llYVIiUrMIlID^i:. 313 hiiul legs adapted for swimmings like the Dyticidre, from which tlie species are distinguished by their herbivorous habits, besides the fundamental difterences in their antennse and mouth organs. The tribe consists of one family only (Hydeophilid^), containing five subfamilies, of which four are water-insects, and the fifth, the Sphajridiinse, live on the dung of land animals. The aquatic series comprises the tine genus Hydrophilus, which vies with Dyticus in the size of its species. HydrojMlus ))iceus is a well-known inhabitant of our ponds, and one of the largest of the British Beetles. It Ls of more convex form than any .species of Dutlcus. miA distinfiiislicil fnmi them also by its uniform deep black colour, and its less energetic motions in the water. Its mode of takin^ a supply of air is total! \ difterent from that of th Dyticidse; for whilst tin latter protrude the hmd extremity of the body above the surface, the Hydrophilus elevates its head, and by a peculm movement of the antennae above the water, makes the air descend along the pubescent joints ol the club, and thence to tli tine hairs which clothe tl flanks of the thorax, will I pass it on to the stigmili openings of the breathm^ tubes. There are some impoi-tant difierences, also, in the habits of the female insects with regaul to the preservation of then oHTspring. The mothei Hydrophilus weaves, by means of a tenacious fluid secreted by two spinnerets in the anus, a kind of cocoon, which she attaches to the under-surface of the leaf of some aquatic plant near the surface of the water, and which is provided with a tube rising above the surface, destined to introduce a supply of air to the interior. In this cocoon she lays her eggs, to the number of about fifty, enveloped with a cottony substance. The larvas emerge from the bottom of the cocoon at the end of six weeks, and swim forth in search of food; and it is remarkable t
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