236 



Hispid^. - 



-INSECTS.- 



-ChBTSOMELIDjE. 



rated it was with golden hues, which before death became 

 bronzy. Some of the Hong Kong species are most 

 beautifully marked, and so are the Ceylonese, as the 

 rare Coptocyda Balyi. 



Coptoeycla is a very extensive and beautiful genus, 

 generally small and mostly from the New World. They 

 retain their hues in alcohol. 



The larvae of the Tortoise beetles shelter themselves 

 under an umbrella of their own excrement, and this 

 covering they can elevate or depress in such a way as 

 to shade or shelter them more or less efl'eotually. 

 They effect this by means of a forked instrument, which 

 Kirby has called a ficcifurk. On this they place the 

 excrementitious matter. It is somelimes turned up 

 and lies flat on the back ; sometimes it forms an acute, 

 sometimes a blunt angle, with the body; at others, is un- 

 bent and in the same direction with it. Figs. 136, 137, 

 show the larva and pupa of a Cassida, copied from the 



Fig. 137 



The cut (fig. 138) represents the larva of Hhpa 

 tcstacea, discovered by Mr. Ferris abundantly on the 

 C'istua salvifolms, a plant growing on the sandy heaps 



Fig. 138. 



Pupa of Cassida rubiginosa. 



Stettin Entomological Society's journal. The excre- 

 mentitious matter is sometimes formed into very long 

 branching filaments, as in the Calopepla Leayana, a 

 species of the family found in India, in which this ster- 

 coraceous parasol, as observed by the late General 

 Hardwicke, much resembles a dried sea-weed or lichen. 



Family— HISPID^.. 



The larvse of these are, in some respects, related to 

 the wood-feeding larvK of the Longicorn beetles, whilst 

 in habits they resemble those of the leaf-mining cater- 

 pillars of certain moths. The late Professor T. W. 

 Harris of the United States first recorded this. Want 

 of space forbids me entering any further on the group. 



Larva of Hispa testacea. 



of the Landes of France. He found that the larva 

 lives on the parenchyma of the leaves, without attacking 

 the epidermis. 



Family— GALERUCID^. 



This is a most extensive family of insects ; many 

 of them are beautifully coloured, and have remarkable 

 antenn.'B. 



Fred. Val. Melsheimer, minister of Hanover, York 

 county, who published a catalogue of the insects of 

 Pennsylvania in 1806, states that the Cucumber fly is 

 " the pest of gardens," and is destroyed or driven off 

 by tar and sulphur. 



Our turnips are subject to the attacks of several 

 insects ; few are so destructive to these crops as the 

 little jumping beetles {Haltica Nemorum), called by 

 farmers " the fly" and " black jack." Kirby and 

 Spence record that in one year in Devonshire these 

 insects did damage to the turnip crops, which was 

 estimated at £100,000. 



Family— CHRYSOMELIDiE. 



A very extensive family of generally brilliant green, 

 blue, or bronzed beetles. I remember a fine species, 

 very common on plants at the foot of Salisbury Craigs, 

 striking the attentiou of a youthful collector of insects 

 in 1833. 



The larvoe are six-legged, with also an anal leg. 

 On heaths and commons you may often meet with a 

 small convex black beetle " crawling solemnly about." 

 This beetle (T(n!arc/ia coriaria) is about the third of 

 an inch in length, and in its larva state is exclusively 

 a vegetable feeder. There is another species found in 

 this country which is of larger size, and being smoother 

 than the other, is named Timarcha Icn-igata. Both 

 species, if you take them up, in self-defence exude a 

 red-coloured liquid from their mouth, whence they 

 have obtained the vulgar, but very characteristic name, 

 of " bloody-nosed beetles." 



On Plate 4, fig. 6, is figured the Australica Curthii, 



