132 



COLEOPTEKA. 



leaf by means of six short legs attached to its anterior 

 segments. (Fig. 88.) Its colour is usually a dark bluish- 

 gray, having black spots 

 interspersed with a few 

 orange spots of larger size. 

 It riots among the Aphides 

 like a lion among a flock 

 of sheep, devouring them 

 one after another with in- 

 j satiable appetite, until its 

 full growth is accom- 

 plished ; it then glues the 

 hinder part of its body to 

 a leaf, and awaits its change 

 into a pupa. In a day or 

 two, the skin cleaves down 

 the back, and the pupa 

 shows itself: it is of a 

 white colour at first, but 

 soon becomes black, spotted 

 with red and yellow. It 

 does not at once quit the 

 spot to which it had ad- 

 hered as a larva, but re- 

 mains there with its old skin gathered in folds around its 

 hinder parts. For a week it continues in this state, motion- 

 less and apparently dead, but really carrying on within 

 an important process, namely, developing and hardening 

 the various organs that belong to the perfect insect. At 

 the end of that time the pupa-case bursts, and the Lady- 

 bird crawls out with its wing-cases small and crumpled ; 

 but they soon enlarge and become smooth and shapely, 

 though they remain for a time of a pale yellow colour, 

 without any trace of the spots that afterwards become 

 so beautiful. In the course of a few hours, however, the 

 rich colours begin to appear, and the various distinctive 

 marks give the creature its character and elegant appear- 

 ance. At the same time its skin has acquired firmness 

 and its muscles vigour, so that leaving its cast-off gar- 

 ments behind, it departs on its fresh travels, again to 

 make war on the Aphides, and to choose a mate. 



FlG. 88. LADY-BIRD IN ITS STAGES. 



