INSECTA MADERENSIA. 461 



fluous. The prodigious numbers in wliieli some of the species at times make 

 their appearance, in northern and temperate latitudes, especially diu-ing seasons 

 when Aphides, on which they subsist, are unusually abundant, must further tend 

 to familiarise them to the most superficial observer. 



§ I. Corpus hemisphcBrico-ovatwm minus convexum ; unyuiculis ad apicem hijidis. (Adoiiia, Midsaiit.) 



352. Coccinella mutabilis. 



C. nigra, capitis maculis diiabus, et prothoracis lateribus, mai-gine antico (postice in medio vix pro- 

 ducto) punctisque duobus parvis, plus minusve flavo-albidis, elytris rubris, pustulis sex in singulo 

 positis unaque basali communi (plus minusve confluentibus) nigris oruatis, tibiis tarsisque 

 anticis ferrugineis. 



Long, coi-p. lin. 2-2\. 



Coccinella iimtabHis, Scriba, Journ. 183. 141 (1790). 



lata, Fab. Ent. Sj/sf. v. Siippl 78 (1798). 



■ ■ mutabilis, Gyll. Ins. Suec. iv. 210 (1827). 



Adonia mutabilis, Mulsant, SecuripaljJ. de France, 39 (1846). 



Habitat insulas Maderenses, ad vias vel in floribus ubique vulgaris, ab era maritima usque ad 

 cacumina montium ascendens. 



C. black. Head witb an elongated dash at the inner margin of each eye (sometimes united, so as to 

 cause the whole of the forehead to be pale), and the prothorax with the sides and the front 

 margin (the latter of which is more or less produced backwards in the centre), and two minute 

 spots on either side of its disk (occasionally connected with the anterior margin, thus causing it 

 to appear trifurcate), yellowish-white. Elytra bright red ; with six spots (more or less developed, 

 and sometimes a little confluent) on each, and a central one, common to both, at the scutellum 

 (which has usually a whitish cloud in front of it), black. 'Yhe. front tibia and tarsi, and portions 

 of the others, ferruginous or rufesceut. 



A very abundant European insect, and one which may be known from the rest 

 of the Coecinellce here described by its more flattened, ovate form, apically bifid 

 claws, and by the fourteen black spots of its bright red elytra. The maculations 

 and paler patches are, some of them, occasionally confluent ; nevertheless the 

 remaining three of the above-mentioned characters will always sufiice to distinguish 

 the C. mutabilis from its allies. . It is by far the most common of the genus in 

 these islands, occurring throughout the entii-e Madeiran group and at all altitudes. 

 In Porto Santo I have taken it in profusion, from out of flowers, dm-ing the early 

 spring, — especially in the calcareous districts of a low elevation: and, whilst 

 encamped on the Pico Ruivo in August of 1850, I captured it on the extreme 

 smnmit of the mountain (6100 feet above the sea). In oiu* own country it is 

 principally attached to sandy and sitbmaritime spots, — particularly the latter, 

 where, during the summer months, it frequently teems. 



