180 



is orange-coloured ; the central part, or suture, blue 

 black ; the disc of each elytra is varied with cream- 

 coloured and blue black marks, which have somewhat 

 the appearance of a cross, being in the centre of the 

 back. These spots vary occasionally in their size : 

 sometimes, for instance, the pale humeral spot is 

 wanting, and in others the bars of the cross disap- 

 pear. The specimen figured represents the ordinary 

 appearance of the insect ; the eggs («) ; the larva 

 (b) ; the pupa (c) ; and the perfect insect (d) ; all 

 greatly magnified. 



The injury, we have no doubt, which a young seed- 

 ling bed would receive from its attacks would have the 

 effect of greatly weakening the roots ; for the whole 

 of the leaves (as we may term the slender elegant 

 spray) being entirely consumed, the plants would 

 necessarily loose a great deal of nourishment, and be 

 less able, in the following spring, to throw up good 

 heads, which, of course, it is the cultivator's chief 

 interest to obtain. 



It is not, how^ever, by the insect in the perfect state 

 that the mischief is caused : at this period of its exist- 

 ence, its whole object is to continue its kind, and eat- 

 ing is no longer a matter of necessity ; it is by the 

 larva, or grub, that the injury is produced. 



The females deposit their eggs upon the young and 

 tender stems, seeming to prefer those which support 

 the flowers. These eggs are of a long oval form, and 



