COLEOPTERA. 149 



is taken from its habitat and placed on some earth in 

 a pan it still keeps this position. 



The mandibles and maxillae are fitted for biting, and 

 the three pairs of legs are short and stout. The larva 

 lives in the soil for two or three years, feeding upon 

 the roots of grass, strawberry vines, corn, grain, etc. 

 (see Fig. '^'^^^ sometimes doing great injury to these 

 plants. It then makes an oval cavity in the earth, by 

 moving from side to side, and lines it with a secretion 

 from the body. This answers for a cocoon (PL VI., 

 Fig. 89) in which the pupa (Fig. 89 ; Fig. 90, pupa 

 taken out of the cocoon) remains quiescent. In this 

 condition the legs are free, and the antenuce and wing- 

 pads are distinctly seen. The insect in this period 

 of repose becomes fitted for the very different life of 

 a winged animal. Its body shortens, the thoracic rings 

 become differentiated from the abdominal, and the 

 antennae, mouth parts, legs, and wings assume their 

 adult proportions. In May the imago appears, and 

 at once begins to feed upon the leaves of trees and 

 shrubs, particularly of the cherry. 



CHRYSOMELID.E. 



The Colorado potato-beetle, Doryphoj-a decem- 

 lineata (Fig. 91, d, d), is similar in structure to the 

 May-beetle. Within twenty-five years this insect has 

 spread over an area of 1,500,000 square miles. Spec- 

 imens can be obtained in great numbers from the 

 potato-vine. Fig. 91, /, is the leg of the beetle ; and 

 Fig. 91, ^, the wing-cover. The latter has alternating 

 stripes of brown and yellow, while the true wings be- 



