PLANT=EATINQ LADY-BEETLES. 



Epilachna should be disowned by its family but it can 

 not be. Except for Epilachna borealis, all of our species 

 are distinctly beneficial because of their food habits, 

 although the ignorant often accuse them of being the 

 authors of the damage done by the Aphids and Coccids 

 upon which they are feeding. Some Coccinellidas take a 

 bit of pollen by way of a change, but borealis, larva and 

 adult, eats nothing but the leaves of pumpkin, squash, and 

 allied plants. The larva is yellow and armed with six 

 rows of forked, black spines. The adults hibernate. In 

 the West the Mexican E. varivestis eats the leaves and 

 green pods of beans. 



Here we skip a number of families which are not well 

 represented in the United States. The ENDOMYCHID.E 

 are something like Coccinellidaa but the tarsal claw's are 

 simple instead of being dilated or toothed at the base. 

 They live in fungi. The EROTYLID^E also live in fungi; 

 "elongate or oval in form, and of medium or small size. 

 Many of them are very prettily bicolored, possessing a red 

 thorax, with black or black and red elytra, or the reverse. 

 A number, however, are of one hue." The tarsi are 5- 

 jointed, the fourth joint being small; antennas distinctly 

 clubbed. The COLYDIID^E are slender, rather cylindrical, 

 usually brown, often with ridged wing-covers. They live 

 under bark, in fungi, or in the ground. Some, at least, 

 are predaceous. Up to several years ago only four North 

 American species of RHYSSODID^E had been described. 

 They live under bark; and are narrow, elongate, somewhat 

 flattened, brown beetles; head and thorax deeply grooved 

 ("wrinkled"); head constricted to form a pronounced 

 neck ; scutellum wanting ; first three ventral segments of the 

 abdomen solidly united to each other. 



Most of these also live under bark and the last sentence 

 would fit them fairly well except for the last three clauses. 

 The Cucujid head does not taper behind to form a neck; 

 the scutellum is distinct; and the abdomen has five free 

 ventral segments. Cucujus clampes is all-red in color, 

 .5 in. long, and flat as a piece of cardboard. Some Cucujid 



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