MINUTE BLACK LADY-BIRD. 46 



elytra pubescent and finely punctured. They do not appear to have 

 any popular name ; scientifically, they are the Scymnus miniviua. As 

 I had not met with the species before (though I believe it is not 

 uncommon), I submitted my identification for verification to Mr. 0. E, 

 Jansen, who pronounced it correct, and that the beetles were the 

 Scyinniis minimus of Rossi. 



The larvae (maggots) sent me, which were then on August 26th 

 fully grown, were about an eighth, or rather less than an eighth of an 

 inch in length, and about a third of that width, furnished with six 

 claw-feet, and with a sucker-foot at the end of the tail ; remarkably 

 nimble in their movements, and with such power of holding by the 

 tail sucker, that the grub could turn over nearly on its back. Shape 

 narrowly oval. Colour, to the naked eye, smoky grey ; on examination 

 with a two-inch object-glass, of a smoky yellowish colour with black 

 markings. The head with some small black marks ; 1st segment with 

 two square black patches above ; 2nd with two longer black patches ; 

 3rd with two long, but narrower black patches. The rest of the body 

 marked lengthwise, with six rows of black tubercular spots with 

 bristles. On examining the black patches and tubercle-like warts 

 with a higher magnifying power, these proved not to be each a single 

 spot, but composed of a number of little black dots, each aggregation 

 bearing two, three, or, on the larger patches, many white hairs, with 

 here and there a few black hairs also. 



On placing the maggots on some Plum leaves infested by Red 

 Spider, I found them shortly after busily feeding. The operation 

 seemed to be going on uninterruptedly and greedily, like sheep browsing 

 on a new pasture. Failing other food, the maggots appeared to prey 

 on each other, for of a few which I had (for convenience of examination) 

 in a corked glass tube, I only found first two or three, and, later on, 

 one live maggot remaining, besides a contorted skin and possible 

 fragments, from which I conjectured the missing specimens had been 

 eaten or destroyed by their companions. 



The remaining maggot went through its changes rapidly. On 

 August 28th it was still in larval state ; it soon changed in the usual 

 manner of the Coccinellidae, or " Lady-birds," to a shiny black pupa, 

 suspended to a leaf, and on the 6th of September the beetle had 

 developed, and was walking about actively. 



From the good number of specimens sent me, I was enabled to 

 watch the development from larval condition onward to that of the 

 perfect beetle, and I have given notes as above of the chief points ob- 

 servable, as I am not aware of the history having been noted before. 

 The only special reference which I find to this Scymnus minimus, as a 

 destroyer of Red Spider, is given by Dr. E. L. Taschenberg in his 

 ' Praktische Insekten Kunde,' pfc. v., p. 154. 



