3o2 NATURAL HISTORY. 



is in the Tetramera. The section is divided into two families, Endomychidte and Coccinellidoe, 

 which each contain only one genus. 



FAMILY ENDOMYCHID.E. 



The insects of this family differ from the COCCINELLID^E chiefly in their much longer and more 

 robust antennae, which are generally half the length of the body, never retractile under the head and 

 breast, and terminated by a distinct club of three joints ; they are also distinguished by their long 

 legs and by their pronotum being furnished behind with two well-marked grooves. The species live on 

 fungi and boleti, chiefly the smaller growths which affect rotting timber, and reach their greatest 

 development in size, beauty of markings, and strangeness of form in the tropical regions of the eastern 

 hemisphere. About 400 species have been described, two only of which inhabit the British 

 Islands. The larger species, inhabiting India and the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, assume 

 eccentric shapes, the elytra being greatly dilated along the margins and elevated into bosses on the 

 disc, often armed with spines. In many respects these species may be said to represent the similarly- 

 formed Erotyli of the same latitudes in the New World. Both perform the same functions in the 

 natural economy of their respective countries ; and in each of the two regions the one has been 

 developed apparently at the expense of the other, since none but ordinary forms of Endomychidte 

 exist in Tropical America, and none but similarly undeveloped forms of Erotylidse are found in 

 Tropical Asia. 



FAMILY COCCINELLIDJE. 



The COCCINELLID^E are the familiar insects known under the name of Lady-birds, the great- 

 majority of which in all countries have the hemispherical form and prettily-spotted colours that 

 distinguish our common species. Some of the genera, of oblong shape of body, and others, in which 

 the surface is clothed with short hairs, and the colours darker and less varied, may at first sight not 

 be recognisable as belonging to the family ; but in such cases they may be known by their three- 

 jointed tarsi, hatchet-shaped terminal joint of the maxillary palpi, and the very short antennae 

 retractile beneath the prothorax. Nearly the whole family have the peculiar habit of preying on 

 Aphides, or plant-lice, one group only, containing a small number of genera, being leaf-eaters. The 

 larvae, which are seen in our gardens and fields even more abundantly than the perfect insects, and 

 devour immense quantities of Aphides, are of long oval shape, narrowed behind, with integuments of 

 solid or leathery consistence, and generally dark-coloured ; they have six legs, and have considerable 

 freedom and quickness of motion, resembling miniature Lizards somewhat in their gait and attitude ; 

 they change into the pupa state on leaves and other objects in the vicinity of Aphis-infested plants, 

 gluing first their tails to the surface. The perfect insect emerges in a few days in the usual way, by 

 a rent in the skin of the pupa, and thus the generations continue whilst the summer lasts. In the 

 late autumn the few surviving adults crawl into sheltered nooks under the loose bark of trees, or in 

 warm mossy banks, and become doi*mant for the winter. In some summers our common species 

 (C. septempunclata] multiplies to a prodigious extent, and the swarms which cover hedges and trees 

 attract the attention of even the most unobservant. The largest swarms on such occasions are to be 

 seen on the southern or eastern coasts of England, and in some years innumerable individuals have 

 been found drowned on the surface of the sea or cast by the waves on the shore. Upwards of 1,500 

 species of Coccinellidae have been described from various parts of the world, of which forty only have 

 been found to occur in the British Islands. 



HENRY WALTER BATES. 



