COLEOPTEROUS INSECTS PREYING UPON BARK-LICE. 71 



in the idea of domesticating ants and in keeping them with their nests 

 in movable hives, as we do bees. 



We have in Florida a minute yellow ant, very common, and very 

 troublesome in houses, which might perhaps be employed in this way. 

 This species seeks the shelter of buildings and hollow tree-trunks ; it 

 has not as yet been found possible to induce them to remain domiciled 

 in exposed situations, and to attack the Scale-insects upon living trees 

 in the open air,- but when branches covered with scale- are brought into 

 the house, they are voraciously attacked, the scales eaten into or torn 

 from the bark and their contents devoured. The nests of this ant are 

 found in very dry and sheltered situations. It is not difficult to estab- 

 lish a colony in a box filled with shavings, paper, or other loose material. 

 In order to accomplish this, one or more of the large queens must be 

 obtained and confined with a sufficient number of the workers to act 

 as attendants. If the box is kept in a suitable place, the ants will ac- 

 cept their new quarters, and may be allowed to roam at large and for- 

 age for themselves and their young, but the slightest exposure to light 

 or dampness will cause them to desert the hive never to return. It is 

 this dislike of exposure tnat has hitnerto baffled every endeavor to 

 colonize this ant upon orange trees and use it as a destroyer of the Scale- 

 insect. Further experiments with. this and other species are necessary 

 to determine whether any of them can be effectively employed against 

 Scale-insects. 



INSECTS OF THE ORDEE COLEOPTERA. 



LADY-BIRDS Coccinellidce. 



The beetles of this family are among the most efficient destroyers of 

 Bark-lice and also of Plant-lice. Formerly they were supposed to feed 

 exclusively upon small insects of various kinds. Although it is now 

 known, through the investigations of Prof. S. A. Forbes and others, that 

 the spores of fungi and other vegetable matter constitute a large part 

 of the food of our common species, they are not on that account the less 

 valuable in the orange grove. 



The family contains numerous genera and species which fall into two 

 divisions ; the first, containing the species of larger size, includes the 

 common insects, which are popularly recognized as "Lady -birds "; the 

 second division embraces nearly all the smaller kinds, many of them 

 insects of minute size, but very voracious and active destroyers of plant- 

 eating insects and their eggs. 



THE TWICE - STABBED LADY- BIRD (Chilocorus Mvulnerus, Muls.). 

 [Fig. 26, beetle; Fig. 27, larva.] This species is 5 mm (-ft- inch) long, 

 nearly hemispherical in shape, shining black, with a red spot on each 

 wing-case. 



The larva is rather broadly oval,'the color bluish-black, with the first 

 body -joint whitish. The body bristles with black spines, which are in 



