The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1907-06-06

water, and / should like to tell you
something about one which is very
common In almost every weedy pond.
1t is called the Great Water Beetle,
and IL you should catch it you may
know 1T at once, for it has a broad
yellow band all round the middle part
OF its body and another down the
outer edge of each wing case, while
In general color it is brown above and
dull yellow beneath. 1t is about an
inch and a quarter in length.
This beetle is interesting for sew
eral reasons. In the first place, it is
a very good swimmer. It's body is
really kind of boat, and it rows it.
self through the water by means of
its hind legs, which are made just
like oars. They are very long, very
broad, very fiat, and a good deal
curved, while all along their inner
edges runs row of stiff bristles,
placed so closely side by side that
water cannot pass between them. If
you watch great water beetle swim
ming you will notice that he uses
these legs just as rover uses his
oars; and they are fastened to his
body in such way that, as he brings
them forward after making stroke,
they turn sidewise, so that their
sharp edges may cut their way
through the water and offer as little
resistance to it as possible. A water
beetle feathers his legs, in fact,
just as human rover feathers" his
oars.
OF course, these legs are not of
very much use for walking; but, as
the beetle never comes on dry land,
that does not matter. If you want to
play a little trick upon the beetle,
however, the way to do it is to lay
him on his back in the middle of a
saucer. He tries very hard to turn
over, but his swimming legs cannot
take any hold of the slippery plate,
and the only result Of his struggles is
to set him spinning round and round,
faster and faster and faster, till at
last you cannot see the beetle at all.
The only thing that you can see is a
brown blur in the middle of the
saucer, and should think that the
poor beetle must get dreadfully
giddy.
Then, in the second place, this
beetle can dive very well. 1 don't
merely mean that it can swim under
water. mean that it can stop under
water for a very long time, although
it breathes air just as you and I do.
Indeed, it can easily remain under
water for an hour, or even for an
hour and half. The fact is that it
is able to carry down good deal of
air with it. If you look at the beetle
sidewise you will notice that its wing
cases are good deal arched, and if
you were to lift them up you would
find that its body underneath them
was a good deal followed The con-
sequence is, of course, that a good
deal of space is left between the two.
Now, this space serves as sort of
air cistern, and just before it dives
the beetle fills it with fresh air. So
when it is under water it can breathe
quite easily until this supply of air is
all used up.
Then, in the third place, this beetle
can fly very WELL Underneath it's
wing cases it has pair of broad and
powerful wings, and almost every
night it leaves the pond and goes for
a good long fight in the air. And
when it wants to return to the water
it does so in very odd way. Instead
of flying down to the edge and then
crawling in, it hovers at a height
above the surface and suddenly folds
its wings, so that it drops into the
water with splash.
Only sometimes it makes a rather
odd mistake. Flying over green
house on moonlight night, it sees
the moonbeams glittering on the glass
roof. and mistakes it for water. So it
folds its wings and drops. often with
such force that for some little time
1t is completely stunned by the fall.