386 



THE LADYBIRD. 



yellowish-orange. The whole of the body is boldly marked with deep black and snowy-white 

 of a silvery lustre. The Plectodera scalalor, a much larger species, belongs also to the 

 Longicorns, and, like the preceding species, is marked with black and white, though the 

 arrangement of the tints is different. 



THE largest of the Tortoise Beetles, or Cassididse, is the AspidomorpTia amplissima. 

 This broad and flat insect is found in the Philippines. These insects derive their popular 

 name from the tortoise-like shape of the body, which is so expanded that the whole of the 

 limbs are concealed under its shelter. Many of these beetles are a light green, or greenish 

 brown, and when they are stationary upon a leaf they can with difficulty be distinguished. 

 The larva is remarkable for possessing a large forked appendage upon the end of the tail, 

 which turns over the back and is loaded with excrementitious substances, so that the creature 

 can hardly be seen under the load which it bears. 



In the present species the body is chestnut-brown, and the elytra are furnished with wide, 

 thin, and semi-transparent margins. Their centre is spotted with black. 



PASSING by several families, we come to our last example of the Coleoptera, the Cliryso- 

 mela cerealis, a member of a very large family. 



All the Chrysomelidse are round-bodied, and in most cases are very brilliantly colored with 

 ehining green, purple, blue and gold, of a peculiar but indescribable lustre. They are slow 



28 1 



LADYBIRDS. -1. J(icrapit dvodedmpvnctata. (In natural size.) 2. Cocctnelia tepttmpunctata and two larva. (lo natural size.) 8. Its magnified 

 Jarva among aphides. 4. Cocci ntl'a imjnututata. (In natural size.) 5. Two different specimens of Coccintlla ditpar. 6. ChUocoria Mputtu- 

 laiw. (In natural size.) The line Indicates the average length of these beetles. 



walkers, but grasp the leaves with a wonderfully firm hold. One of the genera belonging to 

 this family contains the largest European specimen of these beetles, commonly known by the 

 name of the BLOODY-NOSE BEETLE (Timarcha tenebricosa), on account of the bright red fluid 

 which it ejects from its month and the joints of its legs when it is alarmed. This fluid is held 

 by many persons to be a specific in case of toothache. It is applied by means of permitting 

 the insect to emit the fluid on the finger and then rubbing it on the gum, and the effects are 

 said to endure for several days. The larva of this beetle is a fat-bodied, shining, dark-green 

 grub which may be found clinging to grass, moss, or hedgerows in the early summer. They 

 are so like the perfect insect that their identity cannot be doubted. 



THE family of the Coccinellidse, or Ladybirds, is allied to the Chrysomelidse, and is well 

 known on account of the pretty little spotted insects with which we have been familiar from 

 our childhood, and of which our illustration gives an interesting collection. Though the 

 LADYBIRD is too well known to need description, it may be mentioned that it is an extremely 

 useful insect, feeding while in the larval state on the aphides that swarm on so many of our 



