LADY-BIRDS 



43 



Fig- 35* — Two-spot lady-bird 

 (Adalia bipunctata). X lo. 



their food is ready to hand. The larva does not look much 

 like a predatory animal. Its body is flat; broad, tapering 

 behind, and of soft texture. Its 

 colour is grey, changing to yellow 

 on the under side, and diversified 

 with black and yellow warts, and 

 pencils of black bristles. The head 

 is small. Six rather long legs serve 

 for locomotion, aided by the tip 

 of the abdomen, which can be 

 lengthened at pleasure, and used 

 to shove the body along. The 

 larva runs about on plants to seek 

 aphids, and devours them in great 

 numbers, for the aphids are abso- 

 lutely fixed to the plant by their 

 beaks, and have no effectual de- 

 fences. The lady-bird larva grows fast, and changes its skin 

 more than once. When it is full-fed, by the destruction of 

 countless aphids, it settles upon a leaf, and 

 secretes a sticky fluid from the end of the 

 abdomen, which glues it fast; the hairs are 

 cast; the skin splits along the back, and 

 by the wriggling movements of the body 

 within, is worked towards the tail-end, where 

 it sticks in a wrinkled mass like a stocking 

 drawn off the leg. The pupa becomes visible 

 as soon as the last larval skin is cast. It 

 is very unlike the full-grown beetle, the small 

 wing-covers concealing only a part of the 

 body, which is very conspicuously segmented, 

 and of an orange-yellow colour. It hangs by 

 the tail, and, when disturbed, swings its body 

 to and fro several times in rapid vibration. 



The winged beetle has the shape of an egg 

 cut lengthwise through the middle. The 

 body is strongly arched above, and flattened 

 beneath. The small head is partly sunk into 

 the thorax. The tarsus is apparently three - jointed in all 

 the legs ; not truly three-jointed, however, for a minute extra 

 joint can be discovered by close examination at the base 



Fig. 36.— Lady-bird 

 larva (Adalia bipunc- 

 tata). Magniiied. 



