No. 1. ] E t P. Stebbing — Predaceous Coccinellidas y Indian Region. 57 



Brumus is an active beetle running rapidly over the plant when in 

 search of its prey. It feeds voraciously. Some beetles were kept in 

 a box for 24 hours without food and then some aborted peach shoots 

 and leaves containing aphids were placed inside. The beetles at once 

 showed the greatest excitement running quickly over the mass and over 

 each other in their eagerness to get into the interior of the curled-up 

 contorted mass. Every nook and cranny was visited by the 

 small insects and they cleared off the whole of the blight in an incre- 

 dibly short space of time. The beetles were pairing at the time 

 of capture, the insects remaining coupled for several hours. The 

 male which is the smaller of the two mounts on to the back of 

 the female. 



Genus Platynaspis* 



Redtenb, Tent amen., p. 11 [typ. luteo- rubra). 



Prothorax not covering the head. Epistome forming with the 

 cheeks a hood which hides the antennae and the greater part of the 

 eyes. Elytra scarcely wider in front than the thorax. The thighs 

 do not hide the shanks when the legs are drawn back. 



Crotch thinks that this genus is better placed in the Chilocorides 

 than in the Scymnides ; the pubescent surface not being a character 

 of a high order. 



11* Platynaspis luteo-rubra. 



Crotch. Rev. Coccinell, p. 196, 1874. 



Coccinella velue a points, Geoff. Hist. Nat. I. 322. 22. (1762). 

 Coccinella luteo'rubra, Goeze, Ent. Beyt. 1. p. 247 (1878). 

 Coccinella villosa, Fourc. Ent. Par. 1. 149. 22 (1785). 

 Platynaspis villosa, Muls. Secur.p. 216. I (1846). 

 Scymnus spectabilis, Fold. Hem. Mosc. V. p. 410 (1837.) 



I. M. N.— Frevious refererce, Platynaspis villosa, III. 5, 50; V. 3, 63. PI. IX, fig. 

 3 (imago). 



Predaceous upon Chionaspis decurvata Green and Icerya. asgyp- 

 ticum Douglas. 



Beetle. — Elongate *ovate ; sub-depressed with a thorax rounded 

 behind. Head orange, antennae short. Elytra dark brown with an 

 orange tinge. A large orange patch on basal half of elytra and 

 a smaller round one in apical angle. Legs orange brown. Long. 

 vx, — 1*5 millim. 



The larva is a brownish grub which transforms into a pupa 

 attached to a twig of the plant upon which the grub was feeding. 



Distribution. — Calcutta. 



Life-History, — This insect was found in all its stages from larva 

 to adult in July 1900. It was feeding upon Chionaspis decurvata 



