or oars. In both the larva and complete state, it is an inhabitant of the water, and owes its safety to the briskness of its motions, as, •n the least alarm, it dives beneath the surface, with astonishing celerity. The larva has a very long body, with a great many projections, like sharp-pointed fins, along its sides. Its head is armed with a pair of forceps, so formed as to enable it to suck the juices of the smaller water-insects, which are its prey. If you can catch it, a task not very easy to be performed, you will find it, from its transparency, a curious object for the microscope.
The genUS Pausus is not included in the twelfth edition of the Systerna Natur. The species hitherto discovered, are natives of Africa, and appear to be night insects, furnished with a knob at the end of each antenna, that emits a dim, phosphoric light, which pro bably serves as a lamp, to guide the insect in the dark.
The .larvae of the genus Byrrlius, are found. upon plants, or in the bodies of half-decayed animals. They often undergo their transforms lions in insects that have been preserved, and reduce them to powder. The perfect insect has some resemblance to the lady-bird tribe.
The insects of the next genus, Slip/ia, are mostly found amongst substances in a state of
decay.
