STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 175 



or dermal covering, in fact all parts of the body, remain soft and tender, 

 and their rapid imbibation not only constantly keeps them filled with 

 fluids, but is so great in proportion to their capacity that nature has pro- 

 vided them with nectaries or honey-tubes as escape valves for the overplus. 

 They are therefore most dainty food for the rapacious insect appetite, 

 and their enemies are numbered by scores; in fact, nature seems to have 

 prepared entire families of insects as a special means of keeping them in 

 check, and without which vegetation would soon, in a great measure, 

 succumb beneath their attacks. 



These enemies are found in the Orders Coleoptera (Beetles), Neurop- 

 tera (Lace-wing Flies, etc.), Hymenoptera (Bees, Wasps and Wasp-like 

 insects) and Diptera (Flies and Gnats). 



Their beetle foes (^Coleoptera) are confined chiefly to the CoccinellidcB, 

 or Lady-bird family. These beautiful little beetles, so well known to 

 every one by their hemispherical shape and bright red or yellow color 

 with black dots, or black color with red or yellow dots, are most inveter- 

 ate Aphis eaters, both in their larval and perfect states. Their eggs, 

 which are smooth, oval and usually a bright yellow color, may frequently 

 be met with on the under surface of leaves, in clusters of from two to 

 three dozen, placed close together and gummed by one end to the leaf. 



Tliese hatch in a few days, producing usually small blackish larvee, 

 which are somewhat elongate in form, and narrowed posteriorly, and 

 possess six legs situated on the three anterior segments. As they grow 

 they gradually assume the colors indicative of their specific differences, 

 and they also develop on the sides, and in some species over the back, 

 rows of tubercles or spines. When they have completed their growth 

 they shorten their length, the back becoming more convex ; and fixing 

 themselves by the tail to the bark, twig or a leaf, enter the pupie or 

 chrysalis state ; from which in a short time the lady-bird is developed. 

 These larvee, from the time they issue from the egg until they have com- 

 pleted their growth, feed upon plant-lice or other tender insects, the former 

 being their favorite and usual food. Some species prey chiefly upon the 

 bark-lice. Nor do their carniverous propensities cease with the close of 

 their larvae state, but continue in the perfect state also. Half a dozen of 

 these will clear a currant or rose bush of lice in three or four days. I 

 have seen a large rose bush badly infested with lice cleared of them in 

 two days by four spotted lady-birds {^Hippodamia maculata) which the 

 owner placed on it at my suggestion. 



The following species of this family may be mentioned as those most 

 common in Illinois : 



Hippodamia {^Megilla) maculata, DeG. The Spotted Lady-bird. 



Is oval in form, of a brick-red color, with two black spots on the 

 thorax and ten on the wing-covers. The latter are arranged four on eacli 

 side and two on the center or middle line where the two wing-cases meet. 



Is a general feeder, destroying eggs of various insects, and eating, 

 plant-lice, chinch-bugs, etc. Very common throughout the State. 



