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A. atripennis. Black or brown, legs brick red. L. 3-4 mm. P. ceylo- nicus.
Brick red, antennae brownish, elytral borders blackish. L. 3 mm. B.
xanthacrum. Bronze green and yellow, blackish beneath. L. 4- 5 mm.
Tachys spp. Brassy, shining, reddish, black, green etc. with spots. L. 2-3
mm.
Read Andrews H. E. (1936) Ind. For Rec. Ent. Ser. 77(8): 177 New
Carabidae of India.
Fam. Dytiscidae. (PI. V, Fig. 63) Aquatic beetles. Hind legs enlarged for
swimming, spiny, filattish, front tarsi of males swollen, colours sombre.
Oval, no part projecting, head broad, tightly fixed to thorax. Biting,
carnivorous. If caught excrete a white fluid at the joint of head and thorax
and an unpleasant fluid at the anus. Eggs laid singly in water weeds. Larva
aquatic, voracious, preys on molluscs, aquatic insects,
small fish, tadpoles etc. Swims with oarlike legs fringed with hair. Takes
air by 2 terminal lobes of abdomen with head down in water. Pupates in
moist soil. Adult has air enclosed under elytra and in felted hair. Hind legs
flat with long hairs, help swimming. Can live and fly on land freely.
Habitat flowing or stagnant water, sweet, brackish or hot. About 4,000
species known, less than 200 in the Indian region. No detailed list of
Indian species available. A few species, almost all collected by T. R. Bell
in Khandesh, mentioned.
Cybister spp. Black, brick red border all round. L. 25-30 mm. One species,
C, sugillatus fully black. Hydraticus spp. Seedlike, black, broad, irregular,
brick red lines on body. L. 12-15 mm. Laccophilus spp. Brown, tapering at
tail end. Small, 2-3 mm. Bidessus spp. Brown. 1-2 mm.
Fam. Gyrinidae. (Whirling beetles) ( ग ळणी)