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CHAPTER XIV. 



PSEUDOTRIMERA. 



WE now come to the last section of the Beetles, the 

 PSEUDOTRIMERA. This name is compounded of three 

 Greek words signifying * false three-joints/ and is 

 given to the insects on account of the structure of 

 their tarsi, which appear to have only three joints, 

 though in reality they have four joints ; the missing 

 joint, which is the third, being very minute, and hidden 

 within the doubly-lobed second joint. 



THE first family upon our list, namely, the Cocci- 

 nellidcz, is composed of insects which are very familiar 

 to us under the popular name of Lady-birds or Lady- 

 cows the former being the more common as well as 

 the more poetical name. These insects are all flat 

 below and convex above ; the body is rounded and 

 the antennae are short. The typical genus, Coccinella, 

 has the hinder angles of the thorax acute. Many 

 species of these pretty insects inhabit England, but 

 some of the species are so exceedingly variable in 

 point of colour, that the varieties have been described 

 as actual species by practised entomologists. It is 

 common enough to find a blue insect running into 



