THE COLEOPTERA 133 



disulfid on cotton placed in the burrow, the opening then being closed 

 with mud, will serve the same purpose. Worming should be done in 

 early fall; the work should be thorough, and host trees of every kind 

 within several hundred feet of the orchard should be worked at the 

 same time for the beetles do not usually fly far and if the immediate 

 neighborhood is cleared of them, reinfestation from a distance does not 

 occur very frequently. 



Thick paints are sometimes used as repellents. These are applied 

 beginning a few inches below ground, the earth being removed for the 

 purpose, and extending about a foot up the trunk, just before the egg- 

 laying period begins. The paint should be thick and be thoroughly 

 applied and should be pure white lead in raw linseed oil, as other materials 

 have been known to injure the trees. 



Protectors, such as newspaper wrappings (several layers thick), 

 building paper, cloth, wire netting, etc., may be used, being placed around 

 the trunks before egg-laying begins. In all cases, however, these must 

 enter the ground at the bottom and be tightly fitted around the trunk 

 at the top and be without holes or cracks through which the beetle can 

 crawl. Asphaltum has given fair results in some cases, but appears to 

 be liable to injure the tree. 



As the beetle feeds somewhat on twigs and leaves, the usual sprayings 

 with a stomach poison for other apple pests are liable to kill some of the 

 beetles also. Woodpeckers feed freely on the borers. 



Family Coccinellidae (Lady Beetles, Lady Bugs or Lady Birds). 

 The lady beetles are nearly all carnivorous, feeding both as larvae and 

 adults on scale insects, plant lice and other important pests. They are 

 generally small beetles, nearly circular or oval in outline, strongly convex, 

 often resembling in size and form a split pea. Their colors are usually 

 black and red or reddish-yellow, sometimes the spots or markings being 

 black on a red ground, sometimes the reverse. In a number of species 

 the beetle is entirely black (Figs. 125 and 126). 



The larvae (Fig. 126) are active and crawl around over leaves, twigs, 

 etc., searching for their food. They are dark colored, but frequently 

 have a few spots of yellow or blue on the side of the body, and their 

 general appearance has suggested to some persons, a resemblance to 

 alligators. 



The family is quite a large one, and its species are abundant and well 

 distributed over this country. Among the more useful or noticeable of 

 the family is the Two-spotted Lady beetle (Adalia bipunctata L.), one of 

 the smaller species averaging about a sixth of an inch in length (Fig. 1256). 

 The head is black, sometimes with two yellow spots; the pronotum black 

 with yellow side margins, and the elytra are red with a black dot in the 

 center of each. This insect frequently winters in houses and may be found 

 on the windows in spring trying to escape. It is often mistaken for some 



