ful and sharp. Mr. _Dyticus_, for that is his learned
name--from a Greek word which means "fond of diving"--is one of the
most voracious of water-insects, but let us first examine his form.
You see it is well adapted for the kind of life the beetle leads; look
at that long oar-shaped pair of feet, what a broad fringe of hairs
besets them, how admirably fitted they are for swimming; the
wing-covers are smooth and glossy, without any furrows; by this I know
the specimen to be a male, for the wing-covers of the female are
furrowed. The structure of the forefeet is very curious; you observe
its under portion forms a broad circular shield, covered with a number
of sucking-cups, two or three being much larger than the rest; by
means of these sucking-cups the beetle can attach itself securely to
any object it wishes. The wings are large and strong, and situated, as
in all the beetle tribe, under the horny wing-covers. I will put this
bit of stick near his mouth; there, Jack, you see his strong jaws, and
great use he can make of them I can tell you. If Willy were to put one
of these beetles into his aquarium with his favourite sticklebacks, he
would soon have cause to lament the untimely loss of some of them; woe
betide the unfortunate fish or newt that is once caught by the strong
jaws of this fresh-water tyrant! I have seen Mr. Dyticus rush upon a
full-grown newt, and no twistings and writhings could free the victim
from the fatal embrace. They will attack young gold and silver fish,
and Mr. Frank Buckland has told us of the sad havoc these
water-beetles do to young salmon, as witnessed by himself in a pond in
Ireland. The forefeet you see are strong but small; the beetle uses
them as claws in seizing its prey and conveying it to the mouth. A
young and tender fish, you can easily imagine, Mr. Dyticus would very
readily devour, but he will attack beetles as large and even larger
than himself, seizing them on the under side where the head joins the
body, the only soft place in a beetle. Dr. Burmeister, a naturalist
who paid great attention to insects, tells us that he once kept a
beetle related to the great water-beetle, and saw it devour two frogs
in the space of forty hours. After the eggs are laid, which always
takes place in the water, the larvae are hatched in about a fortnight.
In time--I do not know how long--these larvae grow to the size of about
two inches in length, and queer fellows they are, and very voracious
and fo