No. 1.] E. P. Stabbing — Predaceous Coccinellidse, Indian Region. 49. 



larvae when feeding do not attach themselves to the leaf by the tips 

 of their bodies as is the habit of Vedalia guerinii described later on» 

 The grubs are parasitised by minute insects, perhaps hymenopterous, 

 round holes being observed in several dry larval skins, the larva 

 having apparently reached the first stage of pupation before 

 succumbing to the parasite. 



The beetles are very active and run quickly over the curled up 

 and aborted shoots and loaves of the plant searching for the aphids.. 

 Every little nook and cranny is visited, since it is in these that the 

 blights are to be found. When an insect is discovered they seize and 

 suck out its contents much in the same way and with the same vora* 

 cious eagerness as the larva. The beetles were pairing when 

 observed between the 12th and 15th May. They and the Brumus 

 suturalis were by far the most plentiful of the four genera present. 



2. Hippodamia constellata. Crotch. 



Crotch, Rev. Coccinell. p. 97. 1874. 



Coccinella constellata, Laich. Ins. Tyrol. I. 121. 6 (1781). . 

 „ mutabilis, Scriba J. F. Ent. I. 183. 141 (1790). 



Adonia mutabilis, Muls. Secur. p. 39. 1. 



j, Doubledayi, Muls. Spec. p. 38. 1. (T). 

 Hippodamia ripicola, Muls. Man. p. 13. 10. (1866) T. 

 Adonia Corsica, Reiche Ann. fr. II. 299 (1862). 

 „ bifurcata, Muls. Mon. p. 28. 3. 

 „ Kriechbaumii, Muls. Mon. p. 30. 4. 

 (Plate III, fig. 2.) 

 Predaceous upon Chermes abietes-piceae Steb. MS. and the Blue 

 pine Aphis. 



The beetle is generally recognisable by the pattern of the thorax 

 which is margined at the sides and in front with white, the anterior 

 margin emitting a sharp tooth in the middle, and two small discal 

 dots, one on either side, also white. The elytra are rather pointed 

 at their apices with three black dots placed laterally on their basal 

 halves and another two anteriorly with a narrow black streak in the 

 inner apical angles. In a variety the anterior two-thirds of the 

 elytra is occupied by a design like a reversed gamma with a small 

 dot on either side of it. Long. 7 millim. Fig. 2 shows beetle, natural 

 size and enlarged. 



Distribution. — Common in the N.-W. Himalayas, May to June, 

 at elevations 7,000 — 9,000 ft. (mini). 



Crotch gives the distribution in the Indian Region as India^ 

 Central Asia. 



Life-History. — In May and June 1901 and 1902 the writer found, 

 this beetle in some abundance upon spruce, silver fir and blue 

 pine trees in the Jaunsar Hills, N.-W. Himalayas. The insects- 



E 



