COLEOPTERA. 551 



earth when attempted to be seized, folding the antennae and legs beneath the body. Many species 



leap well. The females are very prolific. 



In respect to the different habits of the larva?, the Cyclica are divided into four principal groups : — 



1. Larva) which cover themselves with their own excrement ; 2. Larva; living in tubes, which they 

 bear about with them ; 3. Naked larva; ; and, 4. Larvae which live in the interior of leaves, feeding on 

 their parciichyme — (Cyclica saltatoria.) 



Such arc the principles which have influenced us in our arrangement of this family. M'c divide 

 them into three trihes, from the mode of insertion of the antennae, \_Cansidarice, ChrysomeliiKt, and 



Galerucitce]. 



The Cassidarice, [or Tortoise Beetles,] which form the first tribe, have the antennae inserted at the 

 upper part of the head, close together, straight, short, filiform, and nearly cylindrical, or gradually 

 thickened towards the tip ; the mouth, entirely placed beneath, with short, nearly filiform palpi, is 

 sometimes arched round and sometimes partially received in a cavity of the presternum ; the eyes are 

 ovoid and round ; the feet contractile, short, with the tarsi flattened, the lobes of the third joint 

 entirely receiving the terminal joint. The body being flat beneath, these insects, by means of the 

 arrangement of the tarsi, lie close upon the leaves, where they generally remain immoveable. In other 

 respects the body is generally orbicular or oval, and margined all round by the dilated thorax and elytra. 

 The head is hidden beneath the thorax, or received in an anterior notch. Their colours are very varied, 

 and prettily arranged in spots, points, rays, &c. Such of their larvae as we are acquainted with cover 

 themselves with their own excrements. The Cassidaikc form two genera. The first, or that of 



Ii'ispa, Linn., — 

 Has the body oblonir, with the head entire, exposed, and free, and the thorax trapeziform. The mandibles have 

 only two or three teeth ; the outer lobe of the maxillae is shorter than the inner ; the antenna 1 are filiform. 



Alurnus, Fabr., has the extremity of the mandibles prolonged into a strong tooth, with a shorter tooth on the 

 inside; the tonguelet is horny. These are South American insects of large size 



Hispa, Linn., lias the mandibles terminated by two or three small teeth of nearly equal size. There are a great 

 number of American species. Many have the upper surface of the body, as well as a portion of the antenna-, 

 armed with many spines. Such is Uispa atra, Linn., a small black species [of very rare occurrence in England], 

 which is found upon grass. 



Chalepus, Tlmnb., has the tibiae longer, slender, and curved, and the two anterior armed with a long spine in 

 the male (//. spinipetj Fabr.). Some species of Hispa have a frontal horn. 11. roitratus, Kirby, funning another 

 subgenus. 



Cassida, Linn. — 

 Is distinguished from Hispa by having the body orbicular, or subovoid, or nearly square in a few species. The 

 thorax, more or less semicircular, entirely hides or covers the head, or receives it in a deep frontal notch ; the 

 elytra, often elevated in the scutellar region, form a broad margin to the body ; the mandibles offer at least four 

 teeth, and the outer maxillary lobe is at least as long as the internal lobe. 



ImaUtHum, Fabr., differs only in having the head exposed, and received in a notch of tin thorax. The body in 

 all the Cassida; is depressed, nearly round, shield or tortoise-sbaped, often elevated pyramidically in the middle 

 of the back, and margined all round by the sides of the thorax and elytra. The nnder-side of the body is tint, 

 so that these insects fix themselves quite close to the plants on which the) are stationed. 



Caitida viridit, is about 1-Cth of an inch long; is of a green colour, with black thighs. Its larva lives on thistles 



and artichokes. Its body is very flat, and furnished with 



spines all round the edges, and enti. irj covered by n> own 



excrement, which it attaches in a mass together, and carries 

 on a kind of fork lived near the anus. The pupa is also very 

 tint, with thin toothed appendages at the sides of the body; 

 the thorax is broad, rounded in front, and COVerS the head. 



In the larva of a species hrom St. Domingo the excrements 



form •.mill numerous articulated filaments like a » ig. 



[The genus is very numerous, and comprise! man] sin- 

 Fig. M.— CuiMi viridl., Iii h> different .i«i«. gular forms, some of which have been recently Kparal 



subgenera by the Rev, F. W. Hope, in the AnnaU of Natural History.] 



The second tribe [ChryKmeUnm) has the antenna inserted in front of the eyes, or mar their inner 

 extremity, and wide apart. These insects do not leap; they form, with the following tribe and some 

 of the preceding family, the genus Chrytonula of I.iimxus ; but which, from its actual extent, we 



have restricted by the adoption of some other. The species which posseai the above characters form, 

 as in the early works id" Fabricios, two genera. 



