COOCINELLID^. 



511 



the trapeziform prothorax, distinguish them from the allied 

 families. An interesting form from New Hampshire, the Pliy- 

 maphora j^'^^^chella of Newman (Fig. 508), is described by 

 Harris (Correspondence, p. 256) as being rust-red, with paler 

 feet and antennas, the head being black ; there is a broad 



black band across the middle of the elytra, and 



the tips are black. 



I 



CocciNELLiDiE Latreillc. The characteristic form 

 Fig. 50S. of the "Lady-birds" is well known. They are 

 hemispherical, generally red or yellow, with round or 

 lunate black spots. The species are difficult to dis- 

 criminate, and number upwards of 1,000. Some in- 

 dividuals belonging to different species have been 

 known to unite sexually, but producing sterile eggs. 

 The yellow long oval eggs are laid in patches, often in a group 

 of plant-lice, which the larvse greedily devour. They are rather 

 long, oval, soft-bodied, pointed behind, with the prothorax 

 larger than the other rings, often gaily colored and beset with 

 tubercles or spines, and when about to turn to a pupa, the larva 

 attaches itself by the end of the body to a 

 leaf, and either throws off the larva skin, 

 which remains arOund its tail, or the old 

 dried skin is retained, loosely folded about 

 the pupa as a protection, thus simulating the 

 coarctate pupa of the flies. The Spotted 

 Hippodamia, U. maculata DeGeer (Fig. 509) is pale red, with 

 thirteen black spots on the bod}^, and is quite common, while 

 the H. convergens Guerin (Fig. 510, with larva and pupa) is 

 common southwards. In Coccinella the body is smooth, hemi- 

 spherical, with the hind angle of the prothorax acute. 



The eggs of the common Two-spotted Coccinella, C. bipunc- 

 tata Linn., are laid in Maj^ on the bark of trees, and those 

 of another brood are laid in June and hatched July 1st. They 

 are oval, cylindrical, orange yellow, and are attached in a bunch 

 of about twenty-five, by one end to the bark. They hatch 

 out when the leaves and their natural article of diet, the Aphis, 

 appear, and may be found running about over the leaves of 

 various garden shrubs and trees. The body is black with flat- 



