LADY-BEETLES. 



35 



fruit-producing plants. A number of them have been illustrated, 

 and readers can learn their shape, etc., by consulting the illustra- 

 tions (Figs. 32-39). The fruit growers of California ought to 

 bless such insects, as they helped them to destroy a most de- 

 structive scale-insect which threatened to ruin the fruit-growing 

 interests in that state. For this purpose a lady-bug, ( Vedalia 

 cardinalis), and several other kinds were imported from Austra- 

 lia, where they were known to kill this scale, and in less than 

 two years the pest was almost exterminated. The- "twice- 

 stabbed lady-bugs." natives of the United States, also assisted 

 in the good work, and one of them, the Chilocorus bivulnerus 

 Muls, is fairly common in Minnesota (Fig. 38). The "two- 



r.. d e 



Fig. 36. — Arialia bipunctata, Linn. After Rile}'. 



Fig. 38.— Chilocorus bivul- 

 nerus, Muls., and larva. 

 After Rilev. 



spotted lady-bug," (Adalia bipunctata Linn.), which was rather 

 uncommon until a few years ago, is now found everywhere in our 

 state in many interesting variations ; it is the only one of the 

 lady-bugs that here enters houses for hibernation, and is fre- 

 quently mistaken for the destructive carpet-beetle, and killed 

 on that account. It is a reddish-yellow beetle with a single black 

 spot on each wing-cover (Fig. 36). 



Some species of the lady-bugs are so minute that they are 

 barely visible, as is shown in Fig. 30. which shows some of these 

 small black beetles, with their larvae, in the act of eating the 

 dreaded San Jose scale, yet, notwithstanding their small size, 

 they do much good. All the above-mentioned beetles should be 

 protected, since they are most useful friends. 



