ENTOMOLOGY IN OUTLINE — COLEOPTERA. 



105 



Round-headed apple-tree borer {Saperda Candida), 

 a, larva; 6, pupa; c, imago 



The round-headed apple-tree borer {Saperda Candida) is a pale-brown 



beetle, with two broad whitish longitudinal stripes. The larval life is 



three years, the 



first part being 



spent in the sap- 



w o o d and the 



later, and pupal 



stages, in the 



heartwood. The 



"pruners" are 



species living in 



and eating out 



the hearts of 



twigs of maple, oak, apple, pear, plum, and other trees, so that the wind 



blows them to the ground. 



Our great sugar and yellow pines are attacked by a large Cerambycid, 



Ergates spicidafus. The genus Prionus has some large species, the 



larvae of which are two and one half to three 

 inches long and which live in the roots of 

 apple and cherry trees, and of grape and black- 

 berry vines. 



Section TRIMERA. 

 This section contains only one family, the 

 all-important beneficial one, the Coeeinellidse, 

 or ladybirds. They are small, hemispherical 

 beetles, usually red or yellow with black 

 spots, or black with red or yellow spots. The 

 tarsi have only three joints, so that if confused 

 with certain Chrysomelids, as they sometimes 

 are, this character serves to readily distin- 

 guish them. With one exception, the genus 

 Epilachna, they are all predatory, both larvse and adults, on plant- 

 lice, scale insects, and other soft-bodied plant-feeding insects. The 

 larva; are slender and fusiform in shape, with roughened spiny bodies, 

 often prettily marked with blue, black, and orange, 



Hippodamia convergent is a very common native form, feeding prin- 

 cipally on plant-lice (aphids). It is yellowish red in color, with six 

 black spots on each wing-cover. Coccinella calif ornica is a similar form, 

 but more rounded and lacking the spots. C. sanguinea is a small, 

 blood-red form. C. abdominalis is the ashy gray ladybird with seven 

 small black spots on the thorax and eight on each wing-cover. Chilo- 

 corns hiimJnerus, the "twice-stabbed," is a large black ladybird, with a 

 large red spot on each wing-cover, very destructive to the armored 



FIG. 99. California pine-borer 

 ( Prin II IIS cal iforn ica) . 



