_Collecting aquatic Beetles._--The fishing for water beetles in deeper water by means of the water net has already been alluded to (p. [32]), but many species live in shallow brooks with stony or gravelly bottom, where the water net can not be used. The Dytiscidae and Hydrophilidae living in such places usually hide under stones, and can in most cases be easily picked up with the hand, or a little tin dipper or a spoon will be found convenient for catching them. The species of the family Parnidae are found on the underside of rough stones or logs which are either partially or entirely submerged. They are more numerous, however, in the moss or among the roots of other plants that grow in the water. Such plants have to be pulled out and examined over the collecting cloth. [Illustration: FIG. 68.--A Tiger Beetle (_Cicindela limbata_), drawn by Miss Sullivan--enlarged.] _Collecting at the Seashore and on sandy Places._--A large number of species belonging to various families live exclusively in the vicinity of the ocean, some on the open beach, others along the inlets, bayous, or salt marshes, and still others on the dry sand dunes. The Cicindelae are actively running or flying about close to the water's edge and have to be captured with the butterfly net. The remaining maritime species live hidden under the seaweed and other debris cast up by the waves, or in the sand (sometimes quite deep below the surface) beneath the debris or between the roots of the plants growing on the dunes. The majority of the maritime species do not appear before June (in the Middle States), but the collecting remains good until September. [Illustration: FIG. 69.--The Beaver Parasite (_Platypsyllus castoris_), adult--greatly enlarged.] In dry sandy places away from the seashore, the collecting at the roots of plants is especially to be recommended, and the plants, and more especially the bunches of coarse grasses usually growing in such places, should be pulled up and shaken out over the collecting cloth. This mode of collecting acquires a great importance in the arid regions of the West and Southwest, where, in the warm season, nearly all Coleoptera are hiding during daytime in the ground at the roots of plants.