870 PREDACIOUS AND PARASITIC 



with dark depressions, generally green also. The elytra, thorax, 

 and head are all thickly and deeply punctured in a manner which 

 frequently gives a mottled appearance to specimens. The mem- 

 branous portion of the hemelytra is smoky, and the whole effect 

 of the colouring is somewhat dull, unless in an oblique light, when 

 the green and purple iridescence overcomes the duller lines. 



The tarsi are black, the legs yellowish brown with dark blotch- 

 ing, and the tibi« of the anterior pair are spiny. The posterior 

 edges of the thorax are produced laterally in a very remarkable 

 way. 



The American variety of this genus, which I have mentioned 

 as probably — in fact, pretty certainly — aphidivorous is described 

 by Professor Riley as Arma spinosa, Dallos, and is known in the 

 United States, which is its chief habitat, as the ' Spined Soldier- 

 Bug.' It, however, belongs to the modern genus, Fodisus, and — 

 although, so far as I am aware, it is not found outside America — 

 the possibilities of transit are so great that it is pretty certain to 

 be sooner or later found on this side of the Atlantic, and in this 

 event will doubtless make Aphides one of its chief sources of 

 sustenance. 



Professor Riley, who has made special study of the natural 

 enemies of the Colorado Beetle, gives the following particulars 

 concerning this species : — " This is one of the most common and 

 efficient of Doryphora's enemies, occurring in all parts of the 

 country, and seeming to have a decided fondness for our potato- 

 destroyer, especially for the soft larva. It is of an ochre yellow 

 colour. Thrusting forward his long and stout beak, he sticks it 

 into his victim, and in a short time pumps out all the juices of its 

 body and throws away the empty skin. He belongs to a rather 

 extensive group {Scutellera family) of the true bugs [Heteroptera), 

 distinguishable from all others by the very large scutel, which in 

 this genus is triangular and covers nearly half the back. 



" The Spined Soldier-Bug may be at once distinguished from 

 all allied bugs, whether plant feeders or cannibals, by the opaque 

 brown streak at the transparent and glassy tip of its wing-cases. 

 The eggs of this Soldier-Bug are pretty little, bronze-coloured, 

 cauldron-shaped objects, with a convex lid, around which ciliate 

 fifteen or sixteen white spines. They are neatly placed side by 



