310 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARTHROPODS. 

 SUB-Ol!DER I. CkYPTOTETKAMEBA. 



This siil)-order includes beetles which liave tarsi of four joints, of whicli one joint 

 remains riulinientary. It contains two families, Coccinellid;« and Endouiychida'. 



The first of tl)ese, Coccinellid^e, or lady-birds, ai-e apjn'oximately hemi- 

 spherical beetles, mostly with brilliant coloration, jrenerally red, yellow, black, and 

 white, and a pattern usually of spots. Their head and j)rothorax are short, the abdo- 

 men with five, rarely six, ventral segments. Their legs are short, and project but 

 little from beneath their bodies. Tiie antenna} are short, although of eight to eleven 

 joints, usually of eleven. Cocciuellid larv;e all iiave a similar general ajijiearanee, are 

 often quite prettily colored or clothed with warts and spines, and have three-jointed 

 antenntu. Their comparatively active life necessitates good vision, which is ])rovided 

 for by three or four ocelli on each side of the head. The mesothorat'ic and first eight 

 abdominal segments have stigmata. Pupation takes j)lace u])on fences, walls, trunks 

 of trees, and leaves, the pupa hanging by its abdomen. The 

 larvre of most species feeil ujjon other insects, chietly u]ion scale- 

 insects and plant-lice. The iinagos feed njion ]ilant-lice, other 

 insects and their eggs, jiollen and spores of plants, and a few 

 upon leaves of plants. fSome species of CoccineUidce are abun- 

 dant on special plants, but usually because those ])lants harbor 

 the sjjecies ujion which they preferaldy feed. While ])ollen and 

 sjjores often form a large proportion of the food of lady-birds, 

 the latter generally prefer animal food, and are conseqtientlj' to 

 ^"'' ^Lumta!"'-''" be reckoned among useful insects. When rudel}- handled, lady- 

 birds emit from the joints of their legs a yellow, odorous fluid, 

 which is said to be the blood of the insect emitted through a j)ore in the joint. 

 The eggs of lady-binls are elongate-oval, yellowish; they are deposited in groups, 

 without covering, upon leaves and bark. Lady-birds, or lady-bugs, have received, 

 on account of their useful habits and the attention which their jileasant colora- 

 tion has attracted to them, nuiuerous conijilinientary names in different langua- 

 ges; the Germans generally term them Jfarieii/t-afcr, but sometimes Knyelkafe)\ 

 MarienwilnncJieii, and like terms ; Ijy the J^rench they are called vac/ies a JJiei/, and 

 bStes d bo7i Dieu. Individual colorational variation within the species is carried to its 

 extreme in the Coccinellidas, Ilannonin picta, one of our native species, being so vari- 

 able in figuration as to appear oftentimes in the collections of beginners in entomology 

 as several distinct species. 



Genera with numerous small species, which do not generally attract much atten- 

 tion, are Scymnus and Hj/peraspis. The larva? of a number of Eurojiean species of 

 Sci/nnius devour mites and their eggs, and one species is an enemy to the gall-inhabit- 

 ing form of the grape phylloxera {Phylloxera vastatiix), while two Americrm species 

 are said to destroy chinch-bugs (£lissus leuco})terus). Brachyacantha ^irsina is a 

 common small species in America, and is hemispherical, and black with reddish-yellow 

 spots. IFyperaspidius cocciclii'ori/s, one of our smallest SjH'cies, is said by II. G. 

 Ilubbai'd to coh.iniy.e ii]iou the truid<s of orange-trees which are thickly infcsteil with 

 certain scale-insects (Goccida"), and to entirely free them from these pests. There is 

 little doubt that these small species do as much good in destroying insects injurious 

 to plants as do the larger species, but their minuteness has prevented tlu'ir habils from 

 being carefully observed. 



