80 COLEOPTERA. 



the Two-Spot Lady-bird (Adalia Bipunctata, Linn.). The first has a 

 black head and thorax, spotted with white, and red elytra, marked 

 with three black spots on each side, and one near the base on the 

 suture ; it is about a quarter of an inch in length. The other 

 species is rather smaller, and is marked with one black spot only 

 on each elytron. It is, however, exceedingly variable ; sometimes 

 the collar is bordered with yellow, and the elytra are black, with 

 red markings. Both these species are exceedingly common, 

 especially the first, which sometimes appears in restricted localities 

 in vast swarms. They are very useful insects, as they feed in 

 all their stages on the Plant Lice, or Aphides, which are among 

 the worst of all the insect pests of our fields and gardens. 



The genus Scymnus, Kug, includes a considerable number of 

 small black species, which feed on the Aphides which infest fir and 

 pine trees. 



The species of Rhizotius, Steph., are more oval than Coccinella 

 and its immediate allies. R. Litura, Fabr., is a yellowish-brown 

 insect, sometimes speckled with darker, and about an eighth of 

 an inch in length. It frequents pine and fir woods, and is not a 

 very common insect. 



One of the smallest insects of this family is Agaricophilus 

 Reflexus, Motsch., which is less than one-twelfth of an inch in 

 length. It is hemispherical in shape, black, smooth, and shining, 

 with yellowish legs and antennae, and is found in fungi growing on 

 the roots of trees. It is a Russian insect. 



Epilachna, Chevr., is a very extensive genus, but it has only a 

 few representatives in Europe, one of which is E. Chrysomelina, Fabr., 

 a round, yellowish insect, with three oblique pairs of small black 

 spots on each elytron, the innermost row near the suture, but the 

 middle ones much further from the suture than the end ones ; it is 

 about one-twelfth of an inch long, and lives on lucerne. 



FAMILY III. Corylopliidce. 



Antennse nine- to eleven- jointed, with several of the terminal 

 joints thickened ; tarsi with four joints, the third small, but not 

 concealed ; head completely hidden by the thorax. 



The type of this small family is Corylophus Cassidioides, Marsh., 

 a shining reddish-brown beetle, hardly one-thirtieth of an inch in 

 length, which is met with, like the Trichopterygidce, in decaying 

 vegetable matter. 



