268 



Bugs, Butterflies, and Beetles 



lARv/4 or 

 VeoAiiA 



bug of the usual reddish brown color (Fig. 247), 

 which greatly loved to eat scale insects. It seemed 

 only to care for the fluted scale (Fig. 248). 

 Mr. Koebele collected a great number of these lady- 

 bugs and a little of their food, both of which he 

 packed away on ice in the steamer at Sydney, 

 Australia. The lady-bugs reached Los Angeles, 



California, alive and terribly 



hungry after their long trip. 



1 They were let loose on the 

 ,.i scale insects there which 

 P? pestered the trees, and they in- 

 1^ stantly began to eat up these 



n* mischievous pests, one after 

 another in rapid succession. 

 Then they began to lay eggs 

 and if half of the young ones 

 grew up to be female beetles one lady-bird would, 

 in six months, have 75,000,000,000 children, each 

 of them hungr\^ for scale insects! 



So you see, lady-bugs are of some use in the 

 world; even the foreign ones like those from New 

 Zealand do not make undesirable citizens of our 

 republic. 



Never kill a lady-bug, a lady-bird or a lady- 



