No. 1,] E. P. Stebbing—RredaceQus Coccineltidse, Indian Region. 61 



Dun plateau. 8-9 days is the length of time spent by the Vedalia 

 in the pupal stage, adults issuing on the 24th and 25th from 

 pupal cases of larvae which had pupated on the 16th. Numbers were 

 bred out and this period seems to be fairly constant for the April 

 generation. The beetle appears to pass some days feeding upon 

 the scale before pairing and egg-laying. The & dies within 24 

 hours of pairing with the ? . 



The grub is very active and eminently voracious. When it has 

 found a scale (the insect being often twice or thrice its own size) 

 it rushes precipitately at it, fixes its mouth parts into the soft body 

 substance and at the same moment attaches itself by means of the 

 adhesive pad at the extremity of its body to the twig. The struggles 

 to escape of the larger and much heavier scale are quite futile. 

 The larva feeds by sucking out the juicy body contents of its host. 

 Grubs watched were found to spend as much as 8 hours in continuous 

 suction at one scale, only quitting it when nothing but an empty 

 dry wrinkled black skin was left. The amount of material they 

 are able to absorb at one meal is very large. The larvae are not 

 gregarious. 



The pupae are to be found fixed either to the upper or under 

 side of the leaves or to the twigs and they are usually found in groups 

 together. The beetles are very gregarious and pass the heat of 

 the day collected thickly together on the under surface of large 

 leaves. They also feed upon the scale but only absorb a com- 

 paratively small portion of its body contents at a time and never kill 

 it outright. Little yellow marks are left upon the scale showing 

 where they have been previously ' tapped ' by the Vedalia adults, 

 several of these latter being often found fixed to the same scale. The 

 writer has only as yet obtained this spring generation, though it is 

 not impossible that more than one generation may be passed through 

 by the coccinellid between March when the larvae first appear in the 

 Dun and the first week in May. 



For a fuller account of what is known upon the life-history of 

 the Vedalia see the writer's Departmental Notes on Insects that 

 affect Forestry No. 2, pp. 324-331. 



16, Vedalia discolor. 



(PI. III. fis. 10, 100.) 



Beetle— Ova\, very convex, small, yellow in colour with a white 

 pubescence. Prothorax with posterior margin triangular. Elytra 

 project slightly beyond prothorax, convex. Long. 4*5 millim. 



