1 82 OTHER DENIZENS OF THE WOODS 



The leaf-beetles (Chrysomelidce) are met with in larger numbers 

 Leaf-Beetles. , i , i ■ 



than the longicorns. The long, dark, or bright-coloured larva, which 



is mostly lancet-shaped, lives, like the beetle itself, on foliage, and is particularly 



fond of buds and young plants. These beetles are found more frequently on herbs 



than on trees, and some are highly injurious to agriculture. They are characterised 



by their widely separated, thread-like, and sometimes serrated antennas, which 



are tapering, and generally less than half the length of the body. Their legs are 



equal in size, the palpi are short, and the body is generally hemispherical or 



ovate and strongly built. The blue alder leaf -beetle (Agelastica alni), which is a 



quarter of an inch long, is a destroyer whose larvae reduce leaves to skeletons, but 



the species is abundant only in certain years. The body contains a juice smelling 



of bitter almonds, which is popularly supposed to drive away toothache. The 



poplar leaf-beetle (Chrysomela po}mli), under half an inch in length, appears on 



poplars and aspens, but only on the young sprigs, and is a frequent and destructive 



pest, which in its larval form effectually skeletonises the leaves it attacks. It 



is dark blue or dark golden green in colour, with a black tip to the red elytra. 



Nearly allied is the aspen leaf-beetle (0. tremulce), which is perhaps still more 



injurious ; it is similar to the last, but somewhat smaller, and without the black 



tips to the elytra. 



Among the fourth and last section of the order, the so-called 

 Lady-Birds. ° 



three-jointed beetles (Trimera), in which the apparently three-jointed 



hind-feet have a very small penultimate segment, the lady-birds must be specially 



mentioned. These have a more or less arched, and generally semi-globose body, 



flat underneath, a head retractile beneath the shield of the thorax, short and 



usually club-shaped antennae (not exceeding half the length of the body), short 



legs that can be drawn close up to the body, and elytra completely covering the 



abdomen. Where plant-lice abound, there will generally be found both the adult 



beetles and the larvae of the lady-birds, which pass the winter beneath foliage, 



bark, moss, or in other shelter, and reappear in summer. Two of the best known 



species are the seven-spotted and the five-spotted lady-birds (Coccinella septem- 



punctata and C. quinquepunctata), respectively named from the number of black 



spots on the red elytra. 



Like the beetles, the wasps, and their allies, collectively forming 

 the order Hymenoptera, are numerously represented in the forests 

 and thickets of Europe. The most familiar members of this order constitute the 

 group Aculeata, which includes bees, wasps, and ants, insects well known to all. 

 The more typical, or honey-bees, are specially characterised by the formation 

 of the central segment of the hind-legs, which serves as a receptacle for the pollen. 

 and is more or less of the shape of a spoon, and very often so thickly haired as 

 to resemble a brush. The larvae of the bees of this group are nourished on a 

 paste consisting of pollen and honey, each living in a separate cell, in which it is 

 fed by the neuters or imperfectly developed females known as workers. By no 

 means all bees are, however, sociable ; many, for instance, nest separately, live in 

 pairs, have no workers, lay a single egg in each cell constructed by the female, and 

 alongside deposit a paste of pollen and honey, to serve as a food-supply for the 



