396 PHYTOPHAGA. [Cassidina. 
nearly to the head; a full description will be found given by Chapuis 
et Candéze (Catalogue des Larves des Coléopteres, p. 259); the larva and 
pupa of either C. viridis or equestris are figured by Westwood (Classi- 
fication, i. p. 377, fig. 46, 9, 10, 11); the former is broad and flattened, 
with the margins of the segments furnished with long and setose 
spines, eight arising from the prothorax, four from both the meso- and 
metathorax, and two from each of the abdominal segments; the ex- 
tremity of the body is slightly recurved, and the elongate fork above 
referred to as bearing the excrement arises rather above the anal 
aperture; the pupa is flat, and furnished with tooth-like serrated appen- 
dages, arising on each side of several of the abdominal segments ; the 
prothorax also is greatly dilated, entirely covering the head, and is also 
furnished with setose spines (v. Westwood, l. c. p. 378). 
The genera are almost entirely tropical, and only one, Cassida, is 
represented in Europe. 
CASSIDA, Linné. 
Of the forty-nine European species belonging to this genus, thirteen 
occur in Britain; the genus, as a whole, contains upwards of three 
hundred species, which are very widely distributed from Siberia to 
Madagascar and the Australian region, the majority, however, being 
found in tropical countries; the genus is characterized by having the 
head hidden under the thorax, with the eyes oval and not prominent, 
the antenne shorter than half the body, thickened towards apex, and 
the elytra usually punctured in strie or rows; the prosternum has a 
short process behind the cox, which is received in a fovea of the 
mesosternum; the body is suborbicular or oval, and the thorax is 
usually semicircular; owing to the great change of colour after death, 
the species are in some cases very like each other in general appearance 
as seen in collections, although in life they appear very different ; 
this is, however, the case with only two or three British species, 
which may be distinguished by other differences; I have, therefore, 
preferred to adopt the general colour distinction as the basis of the 
following table, as it is much more obvious than the characters drawn 
by Thomson and others from the direction of the frontal lines, the 
colour of the head (which is always hidden or nearly hidden), the 
ocellate punctuation of the elytra, &e.:— 
1, Elytra with well-marked rows of punctures, 
which are very rarely irregular. 
i. Elytra with black spots or markings on disc. 
1. Rows of punctures on elytra fine ; inter- 
stices broad, flat. 
A. Form larger and rounder; thorax 
shorter, finely but roughly punctured, 
dull; elytra without a continuous longi- 
tudinal black sutural band . . . . . CO, MURRHA, L. 
