LEAF-EATING BEETLES. 257 



ranged in clusters (Plate 32, Fig. 5) round a thin 

 stem of the young branches of gum trees. The 

 clusters are seen to be arranged in regular longi- 

 tudinal rows, and when examined with a lens are 

 beautiful. The shell is fawn coloured^ and the 

 egg is oblong with four horn-like protections at 

 the apex. Two horns are long, and two are short. 

 Running down longitudinally are four strips or 

 thicker bands of a reddish brown colour. The 

 eggs adhere to the twig, and to each other only at 

 the base; they are free in the upper part. How- 

 ever, they can be loosened from the twig in a mass 

 and drawn off, leaving a little hole running right 

 through the centre of the egg cluster or rosette, for 

 it just looks like a rosette viewed transversely. 

 There are 20 to 70 eggs in a cluster. 



The larvae (Plate 32, Fig. 8) are hatched and are 

 found in clusters in the daytime, and can thus be 

 mistaken for the sawfly grubs. They pupate in 

 the soil. 



Another well-known chrysomelid is the Pumpkin 

 beetle. (Aulacophora olivieri.) (Plate 32, Fig. 9.) 

 It is a small elongate beetle with orange coloured 

 elytra marked with four black patches. It is often 

 mistaken for a ladybird beetle on account of its 

 colour, and also because one of the ladybirds is 

 also a pest on the pumpkin. But the shape of the 

 pumpkin beetle is not round like the ladybird. 

 These beetles devour the fleshy part of the leaves 

 of tlie pumpkin, leaving only a skeleton formed by 

 tlie veins, and are very fond of collecting in the large 

 yellow pumpkin flowers. 



The larvae are elongate white grubs which have 



