VARIETIES OF LADY- BIRD. 7 



a Lady-bird complete, known and recognised as such by all 

 observers. 



Numerous are the variations of colour and pattern wherewith 

 the pencil of nature delights to enamel the convex surface even 

 of a Lady-bird's wing, or, to speak more correctly, wing-cases 

 under cover of which her delicate transparent pinions are 

 curiously folded. Upwards of fifty different Coccinellida have 

 been enumerated, mostly distinguished by the numbers of 

 their spots set upon various grounds red, black, or yellow. 

 Of these perhaps the Two-spotted and the Seven-spotted* are 

 most common, and the Twenty or Twenty -two-spotted^ of a 

 light yellow, with eleven spots on each wing-case and five on 

 the thorax, the most elegant. A beautiful variety is described 

 and figured by Curtis, which he calls the eyed or ocellated, 

 from its having red wings with black spots encircled by yellow. 

 We have met now and then with specimens both red and 

 yellow, in which the painting has been made to assume a 

 checquered character by the substitution of squares for spots. 



The Lady-bird mature is still, as in early life, a feeder on 

 Aphides, and she is for ever to be observed in the carnivorous 

 act of their destruction. It is said, however, that her voracity 

 decreases with her age, and that instead of pursuing her prey 

 (as when a grub) into the narrow folds of a leaf or retired 

 recesses of a bud, she is content to victimise the open feeders 

 within her more convenient reach. 

 * Coccinella bipunctata and septem-punctata. f ' vigintiduo-punctata. 



