Till'; LADN I'.lllI'I'l.IiS. 507 



siii.ill. ,111(1 stroiiu'ly ("iiiiiruiiiJilc in front : i'lyti-;i ('(hivcx. imt tniiiciitc 

 ill tip: IVoiit coxa' t i-;iii.s\crsc. si'p.-irjitf, t lie ('(ixiil (•;i\'iti('s closed hc- 

 hiiul. I'xccpl ill ('(Hviduht : middle eo\;e rounded; liiiid coxiu trans- 

 verse. Avidely separated: ;il)(loiiieii with live I'rei' V(Mitral s('f?ments, 

 tlie doi-s;d port ions ol wliieli n''e pjirtijilly nieinhi'inions : tarsi :}- 

 jointed, the seeynd joint dilated and spoiiijy beneath. 



Takiiiii' into eonsideratioii tlie foi-etijoinfj: eharaeters, lj(d5iiroii has 

 well said that: "In a s\steiiiatie point of view the ('oeeinellida' 

 oeen]\v a rcMiiarkably anomalous and isolntod position. Whilst hav- 

 ing the rounded form of the plant bet^tles. the elavate anteniuv of 

 the scavengers, and the dilated i)alpi of the fungus beetles, they 

 agree in food and habits Avith none of these, but resemble, in their 

 predaceous habits, the givnind beetles and the soft winged carnivora, 

 all of whieh have their bodies more or less elongated, tlieir tarsi 5- 

 jointed. their antenme filiform, and their ])alpi slender or but mod- 

 erately dilated. ' ' 



The Coccinellida> are among the Jiiost benetieial of inseets, being, 

 with very few exceptions, predaceous in both the larval and adult 

 stages. They seem to be especially adapted to keeping in check the 

 extensive families of plant lice, both the leaf-lice (aphids) and the 

 bark-lice (coccids) upon which they feed voraciously. It is not un- 

 ronnnon to find in an orchard branches of trees thickly covered with 

 the scales of bark-lice, almost every one of which has been torn open 

 and its oecupant dev^oured by thes(> lady-beetles. They are also 

 known to feed upon th(^ eggs of inan>' forms of larg(M' insects, upon 

 chinch bugs and upon spoi-es of the lower '-ryptogams and pollen 

 grains. After examining the stomach content of MI) specimens, Dr. 

 S. A. Forbes states that "the funclion of tlie Ix'ctles of this family 

 of limiting the multiplication of ])lant-lice is expressed by the fact 

 that these insects compose a. iouitli of th(» food of this entire^ collec- 

 ticm. The {x.llen of grasses and Compositu^ make 14 per cent., the 

 spores of lichens four per cent., tind thosi^ of fungi 45 per cent., or 

 nearly half the whol(\" {'hiiich bugs made up 10 per cent, of 

 the entire food eaten by members of th(; genus fl ippodfdiiia, taken 

 in a corntield where such bugs were abundant.* 



The larva' of the (^)r'einel!ida are oblong, blackish 

 grubs, and are usually l>es(-t with spines, which are in 

 turn armed with smaller spines or ])rickles. giving 

 them, when magnified, a formidabh^ appearance. 

 (Fig. 18.").) In many cases the larva? are spotted or p. ^^ 

 banded in reds, black and vellows. Thev ])ear some- (After Forbes.) 



•"The Food Relations of the Carabidse and Coccinellids" in Hull. Xo. 6, 111. Lab. Nat. Hist., 1883. 



