COLEOPTERA. 149 



in tlie ground. In about a fortnight's time the perfect 

 insects appear; they live through the winter in a torpid 

 state, reviving in the spring ; and now is the season for 

 their devastations, for just as the two first cotyledons or 

 seed-leaves of the turnips appear, the Flea-beetles attack 

 them with their strong toothed mandibles and devour 

 them. There is no remedy against their depredations. The 

 only thing the farmer can do is to get his ground ready for 

 an early sowing, and to watch his opportunity for putting 

 in the turnip seed in warm and showery weather, which 

 will force on the little plants and quickly get them out 

 of their two seed-leaves, when, comparatively speaking, 

 they will be safe. 



This last section, viz., the Trimera (or Pseudotrimera), 

 is the smallest ; the insects contained in this section are 

 of different structure ; and there are really four joints 

 in the tarsi, though apparently only three. Many of 

 these insects feed on fungi. The Lady-bird-beetles 

 {Coccinellce), of which the pretty little Cocc'uiella sep- 

 tempunctata is one of the commonest and best known, 

 belong to this section. These are useful little beetles, 

 as they devour, both in the larva and adult stage, the 

 Aphides or Plant-lice, which cause so much damage. A 

 figure of the seven-spotted Lady-bird will be seen on 

 Plate VL, Fig. 10 ; another prettily-coloured beetle, 

 resembling the Lady-bird, will be seen on the same 

 Plate, Fig. 4. This is the Endomychis cocchieus, often 

 occurring under bark in fungoid growth ; the figure is 

 magnified ; the natural size of the beetle being about 

 the quarter-of-an-inch in length. 



Last summer (1874), I noticed several larvae of some 

 small species of CoccineUa, parasitic in the cells of the 



