56 



ZOOLOGY 



FIG. 

 Anatisocel- 

 lata. Adult. 

 Nat. size. 

 Photo, by 

 V.H.L. 



destroyed in a single season. The larvae of the ladybirds 

 are dark, spotted, and hirsute. One of the commonest of 



four eastern ladybirds is a red- 

 backed, two-spotted one (Adalia 

 bipunctata). 

 The food of beetles is, as we 

 have seen, extremely varied, 

 more varied, indeed, than that of 



FIG. CO. Pupa of , , -> . -, 



Anatisocellataon an J other or <kr of insects ; WOod- 



a leaf. Nat. size, fibre, bark of living; or dead trees, 



Photo, by V.H.L. . , ,. . .. 



leaf and stem tissue, nuts, fruits, 

 grains, insects, adult and larval and dead animals of vari- 

 ous sorts, are all utilized by them as food. Those beetles 

 which destroy living plants, or which feed on fruits 

 and grains utilized by man, those which burrow in tim- 

 ber, devour meat or articles of human 

 industry and collections prized by man, 

 may be ranked as economically injuri- 

 ous. One species, indeed, is injurious 

 as a parasite of a useful animal ; this is 

 a curious beaver parasite, Platypsylla 1 

 castor ia? In so far as certain predaceous 

 beetles feed upon other carnivorous 

 species of insects, as do certain tiger 

 FIG. 02. - Platypsylla ancl carrion beetles, or upon small fish, 

 castoria, the beaver as do some of the Dytiscidse, or upon 

 Packard. * domestic bees, like certain allies of the 



weevils, they may be indirectly injur- 

 ing man. Of all the families of beetles, probably the leaf- 

 eaters cause greatest destruction ; next to them come the 

 weevils, followed by the Cerambycidie and the others. 



1 irXarvs, broad j i/^XXa, a flea. 2 Fig. 62. 



