Order 5. 



COLEOPTERA. 



551 



earth when attempted to be seized, folding the antennje and legs beneath the body. Many species 

 leap well. The females are very prolific. 



In respect to the different habits of the larvae, the Cyclica are divided into four principal groups : — 

 1. Larvae which cover themselves with their own excrement ; 2. Larvae living in tubes, which they 

 bear about with them ; 3. Naked larvae ; and, 4. Larvae which live in the interior of leaves, feeding on 

 their parenchyme — {Cyclica salfatoria.) 



Such are the principles which have influenced us in our arrangement of this family. We divide 

 them into three tribes, from the mode of insertion of the antennae, {^Cassidarice, Chrysomelino:, and 

 Galerucita:']. 



The CassidaricE, [or Tortoise Beetles,] which form the first tribe, have the antennae inserted at the 

 upper part of the head, close together, straight, short, filiform, and nearly cylindrical, or gradually 

 thickened towards the tip ; the mouth, entirely placed beneath, with short, nearly filiform palpi, is 

 sometimes arched round and sometimes partially received in a cavity of the prosternum ; the eyes are 

 ovoid and round ; the feet contractile, short, with the tarsi flattened, the lobes of the third joint 

 entirely receiving the terminal joint. The body being flat beneath, these insects, by means of the 

 arrangement of the tarsi, lie close upon the leaves, where they generally remain immovealile. In other 

 respects the body is generally orbicular or oval, and margined all round by the dilated thorax and elytra. 

 The head is hidden beneath the thorax, or received in an anterior notch. Their colours are very varied, 

 and prettily arranged in spots, points, rays, &c. Such of their larvae as we are acquainted with cover 

 themselves with their own excrements. The Cassidariae form two genera. The first, or that of 



HiSPA, Linn., — 

 Has the body oblong:, with the head entire, exposed, and free, and the thorax trapeziform. The mandibles have 

 only two or three teeth ; the outer lobe of the maxillse is shorter than the inner ; the antennae are filiform. 



Alurnus, Fabr., has the extremity of the mandibles prolong^ed into a strong tooth, with a shorter tooth on the 

 inside; the tonguelet is horny. These are South American insects of large size. 



Hispa, Linn., has the mandibles terminated by two or three small teeth of nearly equal size. There are a great 

 number of American species. Many have the upper surface of the body, as well as a portion of the antennae, 

 armed with many spines. Such is Hispa atra, Linn., a small black species [of very rare occmrence in England], 

 which is found upon grass. 



Chalepui, Thunb., has the tibiae longer, slender, and curved, and the two anterior armed with a long spine in 

 the male (U. spiiiipes, Fabr.). Some species of Hispa have a frontal horn. U. rostratus, Kirby, forming another 

 subgenus. 



Cassida, Linn. — 

 Is distinguished from Hispa by having the body orbicular, or subovoid, or nearly square in a few species. Tlie 

 thorax, more or less semicircular, entirely hides or covers the head, or receives it in a deep frontal notch ; the 

 elytra, often elevated in the scutellar region, form a broad margin to the body ; the mandibles offer at least four 

 teeth, and the outer maxillary lobe is at least as long as the internal lobe. 



Jmaiidiuin, Fabr., differs only in having the head exposed, and received in a notch of the thorax. The body in 



all the Cassidae is depressed, nearly round, shield or tortoise-shaped, often elevated pyramidically in the middle 



of the back, and margined all round by the sides of the thorax and elytra. The under-side of the body is flat, 



so that these insects fix themselves quite close to the plants on which they are stationed. 



Cassida viridis, is about l-6th of an inch long ; is of a green colour, with black thighs. Its larva lives on thistles 



and artichokes. Its body is very flat, and furnished with 

 spines all round the edges, and entirely covered by its own 

 excrement, which it attaches in a mass together, and carries 

 on a kind of fork fixed near the anus. The pupa is also very 

 flat, with thin toothed appendages at the sides of the body ; 

 the thorax is broad, rounded in front, and covers the head. 

 M^^ "^\^'-'^ "**^\ '/ / I" ^^^ larva of a species from St. Domingo the excrements 



<^SA^* >^ \V / form small numerous articulated filaments like a wig. 



[The genus is very numerous, and comprises many sin- 

 Fig. 84.— Cassida viridis. in its different states. gular fomis, some of which havc been recently separated as 

 subgenera by the Rev. F. \V. Hope, in the Annals of Natural Jlisio)'^.} 



The second tribe (Chr>ysomelina>) has the antennae inserted in front of the eyes, or near their inner 

 extremity, and wide apart. These insects do not leap ; they form, with the following tribe and some 

 of the preceding family, the genus Chrysomela of Linnaeus ; but which, from its actual extent, we 

 have restricted by the adoption of some other. The species which possess the above characters form, 

 as in the early works of Fabricius, two genera. 



