LADYBIRDS. 



Ladybird, ladybird, prythee begone; 



Thy house is on fire, and thy children at home. 



HIS interesting 

 family of Coleo- 

 pterous insects 

 (Beetles) enjoys a 

 greater popularity 

 than any of its 

 allies, their do- 

 mestic habits and 

 pretty appearance 

 the attention of 

 the juvenile population, and 

 their many virtues endearing 

 them to persons of riper 

 years. In most countries 

 they have received pet 

 names. In Trance they are 

 regarded as sacred to the 

 Virgin, and are called Fetches 

 a Lieu, or Betes de la Vierge ; 

 and with us, Ladybirds, 

 Ladycows, and in Norfolk, 

 "Bish-a-barna-bee," the 

 latter cognomen being pre- 

 served by children in the 

 chant wherewith they greet the appearance of these 

 insects : — 



Bish-a-bish a barna bee, 

 Tell me what the matter be ; 

 If it be to fly away, 

 Then come again another day. 



Professor Westwood has given an interesting 

 popular summary of these little creatures in his 

 " Introduction : " — 



"The general colours are red or yellow, with 

 black spots, varying greatly in number and 

 size ; or black, with white, red, or yellow spots. 

 As, however, the union of individuals of opposite 

 colours is of constant occurrence, the difficulty of 

 investigating the species may be easily imagined. 

 M. Audouin has published some interesting notes 

 upon this subject, which appear to show that the 

 result of the union of allied species in this group 

 are sterile eggs. "When alarmed, they fold up their 



No. 20. 



legs and emit a mucilaginous yellow fluid from the 

 joints of the limbs, having a very powerful and dis- 

 agreeable scent, and which, according to some 

 writers, is an admirable specific against the tooth- 

 ache. They creep but slowly, but fly well ; are 

 abundant in our gardens and plantations, where, 

 both in the larva and perfect states, they are very 

 serviceable in destroying the aphides upon various 

 plants. And, inasmuch as they occasionally appear 

 in such swarms as to attract public attention, the 

 injury done by the aphides is, by ignorant persons, 

 attributed to the more conspicuous Coccinellidce . 

 The eggs are deposited in small yellow patches in 

 the midst of the plant-lice ; so that the larva, when 

 hatched, is in the midst of its food. The larva is 

 depressed, and somewhat of an elongate-ovate form 

 and fleshy consistence, having the three anterior 

 segments the largest, and the abdominal segments 

 tubercled and spotted, and emitting a fluid similar 

 to that of the imago from the tubercles. When full 

 grown, it attaches itself to a leaf by the extremity 

 of the body, casts off its larva skin, which is col- 

 lected in a mass at the tad, within which the pupa 

 also remains attached in this state." * 



The great service which these insects render to 

 man in the destruction of plant-lice is illustrated 

 by a circumstance related by Kirby and Spence : — 



" In 1807 the shore at Brighton and all the water- 

 ing-places on the south coast was literally covered 

 with them, to the great surprise, and even alarm, of 

 the inhabitants, who were ignorant that their ltttle 

 visitors were emigrants from the neighbouring hop- 

 grounds, where, in their larva state, each had slain 

 his thousands and tens of thousands of the aphis, 

 which, under the name of the fly, so frequently 

 blasts the hope of the hop-grower. If we could but 

 discover a mode of increasing these insects at will, 

 we might not only, as Dr. Darwin has suggested, 

 clear our hothouses of Aphides by their means, but 

 render our crops of hops much more certain than 



* " Introduction to Modern Classification of Insects," 

 vol. i. p. 396. 



