218 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Family COCCINELLnXffi. 



The "Lady-birds" or "lady-bugs"; red or yellow with 

 black spots, or black with red or yellow spots, more or less 

 hemispherical in shape, sometimes a little more oval in outline. 

 The larvae are rather slender, fusiform, prettily marked with 

 black, blue and orange. With one exception all our species 

 are predatory and feed upon plant-lice, scale insects or other 

 plant-feeding larvae or grubs. They are of the greatest eco- 

 nomic importance and are one of nature's principal checks to 

 plant lice increase. The scale feeders are chiefly the small, 

 black forms, the red or orange species taking only the crawling 

 larvae incidentally. In its predatory habits the family as a 

 whole is exceptional among the clavicorns, or types with cub- 

 tipped antennae. 



ANISOSTICTA Dup. 



A. strigata Thunb. Chester (Dn), Snake Hill, V, 17 (Bf), Hudson Co. (LI), 

 Westville (Li). 



N^IMIA Muls. 



N. seriata Melsh. Occurs along shore July to September, frequently washed 

 up : Snake Hill, V, 17 (Bf), found in numbers during spring in swamps 

 at Merchant ville and Westville (W). 



MEGILLA Muls. 



Fig. 84.— Cocci- 

 nellid larva. 



& ~b c 



Fig. 85. — Megilla maculata {fuscilabris) : a, larva ; b, pupa ; 

 c, adult : enlarged. 



M. fuscilabris Muls.= maculata DeG. Throughout the State, commonly, 

 hibernates in masses and has a wide range of food, including pollen and 

 fungus spores as well as plant lice and other soft insects. 



