114 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences^ Arts, and Letters. 



nearly round beetles, ornamented mostly with spots of various 

 colors on tlie elytra. 



There are about one hundred species described as belonging 

 to the United States. In my collection alone there are no less 

 than twenty species, obtained near Racine. So Wisconsin is 

 not deficient in these valuable insects. These beetles deposit 

 their eggs in clusters on the under side of leaves on various 

 plants. Their eggs are of a shining, golden yellow, resembling 

 those of the Colorado potato beetle. In a few days they hatch 

 out six legged, dark colored, long bodied larvge. Their jaws 

 are short, but sufficiently long, however, to be of good service 

 in killing aphides. 



These larvae are nearly, if ngt quite, equal to the aphis lions 

 in destroying plant lice. Dr. Fitch, New York state entomol- 

 ogist, so faithfully describes the habits of i}ns> plant lice wolf, as it 

 miglit appropriately be named, that I adopt his language. 

 When first hatched, "it walks about with much animation, 

 and coming to a plant louse, much larger than itself it may 

 be, the little hero, though only a few minutes old, boldly seizes 

 the louse, which, like a cowardly poltroon, makes no resistance 

 except trying to pull himself away. But the little assailant 

 hangs lustily to him, preventing his advancing a single step 

 further, and using his anterior legs as arms, he commonly raises 

 the louse off from the leaf and leisurely devours his body, 

 leaving only the empty skin remaining. As he grows, the 

 sides, and in some species the whole surface, becomes diversi- 

 fied with bright red and yellow spots with rows of tubercles or 

 elevated points. He is a most active voracious little creature, 

 running briskly over the limbs and leaves in search of his prey, 

 and consuming hundreds of aphides. He grows to about a 

 quarter of an inch in length in the course of two or three 

 weeks ; he then fixes himself by his tail to a leaf, or the limb 

 or trunk of a tree, and hanging with his head downwards the 

 skin cracks open along the middle of his back, and the smooth 

 back of the pupa protrudes partly out of the prickly skin of 



