238 



COCCISELLIDJE.- 



-INSECTS.- 



-PaL'SSID-E. 



duction" the occurrence is tlius mentioned: "One 

 morning I observed on my study window a little Lady- 

 bird, yellow, with black dots {Coccinella punctata). 

 ' You are very pretty,' said I to myself, ' and I should 

 like to have a collection of such creatures.' Immediately 

 I seized my prey, and not knowing how to destroy it, I 

 immersed it in geneva. After leaving it in this situation 

 a day and a night, and seeing it without motion, I con- 

 cluded it was dead, and laid it in the sun to dry. It 

 no sooner, however, felt the warmth than it began to 

 move, and afterwards flew away. From this time I 

 began to attend to insects."* 



CONSPECTUS OF EUROPEAN GENERA OF LADY- 

 BIRDS (from Thomson's Coleoptera of Sweden"). 



Family CocciNEi.LiD^. Maxillary palpi with the last joint 

 securiform ; all the coxaa subtransverse, not much exserted ; 

 thorax closely appHed to the elytra ; elytra not striated. 



Skct. I. Forehead^ hefore the eyes, dilated, covering the base 

 of the antennte; mandibles concealed, 



Genui CltUocorus, Leach (type €. renlpustvlatus, Scriba). — 

 Clypeus notched at the tip; labrum distinct; tibia; before 

 the middle armed with a little tooth. 



Genus Exochomus, Redt (type E. i-pustulatus, Linn.) — Tibiae 

 unarmed. 



Genus Platynaspis, Redt (type P. villosa, lluls.) — L.abnim con- 

 cealed ; body above pubescent. 



Sect. 2. Forehead not flattened out before the eyes ; antennce 

 free at the base. 



Div. 1. Mandibles free at the tip, extending beyond the trans- 

 versely linear l/ibrum ; body semi-globose, above pubescent ; 

 tibia with obsolete spurs; antennte not contiguous to the 

 eyes ; forehead in front of the eyes notched. 



Genus Ejiilachna, Redt (type E. globosa, Schneider). — Claws of 

 the tarsi bifid ; body winged. 



Genus Cynegetis, Redt (type C. impunctata, Linn.) — Claws with 

 a busal tooth ; epipleura of the elytra behind the posteiior 

 coxa;, with a fovea receiving the tip of the femora. 



Div. 2. Mandibles concealed. 



Phal. 1. Eyes entire, rounded; body very often pubescent 

 above ; pygidium often exposed; tibi(v with obsolete spurs. 



Genus Rhizobius, Stepli. (type R. litura, Fabr.) — Prosternum 

 keeled in front; antenna; nearly of the length of the thorax; 

 thorax narrowed towards the tip. 



Gerus Coccidula, Kug. (type C. rufa, Herbst.). — Thorax at the 

 base narrower than the elytra, with the posterior angles 

 right-angled. 



Genus Sajmnus, Kug. (type .S'. ater, Kug.) — Antennie shorter 

 than the thorax; elytra with humeral tubercles; pygidium 

 exposed. 



Genus llyperaspis, Redt (type H. reppensis, Herbst). — Body 

 above rather smooth ; elytra without any humeral tu- 

 bercle. 



Phal. 2. Eyes in front somewhat notched; body above smooth. 



Genus Hippodamia, Muls. (type //. IS-punctala, Linn.) — Pos- 

 terior coxa; little distant ; metasternum triangularly cut 

 out behind ; femora extending beyond the margin of the 

 elytra. 



Genus Coccinella, L. (type C. 1-punctata, Linn.) — Posterior cox£e 

 widely distant; metasternum behind slightly notched. 



Genus Ilalyzia, Muls. (type H. ocellain, Linn.) — Prosternum in 

 front tuherculated; mesosternum in front slightly notched: 

 tibia; with obsolete spurs. 



Genus Micraspis, Redt (type M.\2-punctata, Linn.) — Scutellum 

 scarcely conspicuous ; labrum transversely linear. 



• Introduction — ii., p. 187. 



I come now to a family of doubtful position, but 

 with pentamerous tarsi. 1 jilace them here provision- 

 ally :— 



Family— PAUSSID^. 



The Paussid^ are a family of beetles of rare beauty 

 in the eyes of an entomologist. The Paussidoe have 

 strange, swollen antenns, and truncated elytra, while 

 their thorax is often curiously grooved and knotted. 

 Professor Adam Afzelius of Sierra Leone, shortly after 

 it was founded, was sitting one evening in January, 

 1796, when, having just lighted his candle and taken 

 up his pen, he remarks, "I observed something dropping 

 down from the ceiling before me upon the table. It 

 remained for a little while quite immovable, as if 

 stimned or frightened, but soon began to crawl very 

 slowly and steadily." The insect he afterwards de- 

 scribed as Paiissus spha:rocerus, and a curious creature 

 it is, with a light reddish-brown body and legs, and a 

 strange white ball or berry at the end of each antennae. 



Fig. 140. Fig. 141. 



Paussus Latreillei, 



Platyrhopalus aplustrifer. 



our flgures of the Paus- 



He took none after February, and before that several 

 flew into the candle, so that he concluded it was noc- 

 turnal. Our tvvo figures (figs. 140 and 141) represent 

 Pmissus Latreillei from Sierra Leone, and Platyrho- 

 2ialus aplustrifer from Bengal. 



From Mr. Westwood's well illustrated monograph in 

 the " Arcana Entomologica,' 

 sidae are derived. 



As my friend Major- 

 general Sir John Hearsey, 

 when colonel in the East 

 India Company's service, 

 was inspecting some invalid 

 troops in India, he noticed a 

 Paussus on the jacket of 

 one of the Sepoys and went 

 up and secured it. West- 

 wood named the species 

 after him, Paussus Ilearse- 

 ianus ; it is reddish-brown, 

 with a broad black stripe 

 down each elytron, and is 

 not rare, apparently, at Sultanpore, near Benares. Fig 

 142 shows this species.* 



* Westwood, Arcana Entomologica, p. 169. 



Paussus HearselanuB. 



