22 



vations above recorded were made during the months of August and 

 September, and the insects were kept in glass jars in a sunny window 

 of my office. The eggs are darker and much rougher than those of the 

 Icerya, which they otherwise closely resemble, and are usually thrust 

 into the egg sac of the latter. The young larvae prefer the eggs of the 

 Icerya to the insects themselves as food, and shortly after issuing from 

 the eggs they burrow into an egg sac and frequently remain in it until 

 full grown. On several different occasions I have reared a Novius 

 larva from the egg to the adult state upon the eggs in a single egg mass 

 of the Icerya. They spend a somewhat longer time in their preparatory 

 stages than the Yedalia does, this being especially noticeable in the 

 pupa stage; and being much smaller insects they do not destroy the 

 Iceryas as rapidly as the Yedalia does. The latter appears to prefer 

 the Novius larvae to the Iceryas for food, and whenever the larva3 of 

 these two ladybirds inhabit the same plant the Novius larva falls a 

 prey to its more powerful rival. I learn from Mr. John Scott, the 

 Horticultural Commissioner of Los Angeles county, that he introduced 

 a few Yedalia larvae into a glass jar containing a colony of the Novius, 

 and, although he kept them well supplied with Iceryas for food, still in 

 a short time the Yedalias had completely annihilated the i^ovius 

 larvae. 



Leis costformis. — Egg. — Elongate-ovate, twice as long as broad, the outline quite 

 regular, tapering gradually toward each, end, the upper end convex, the lower one 

 flattened at its attachment; surface highly polished, but under a highly magnifying 

 power appearing somewhat scabrous, owing to minute, blisterlike, raised spots 

 which are thinly scattered over its surface; color, light lemon-yellow; length, l£ mm . 



The eggs are attached by one end to a leaf or other object and are 

 deposited in clusters of from three to forty-one eggs each. Time from 

 deposition to hatching, seven days. 



Larva: First stage. — Body of the usual Coccinellid form, being widest in front and 

 tapering quite rapidly posteriorly; olive-brown, varied with black, and bearing 

 many black, somewhat conical tubercles, each tipped with a black style which at its 

 apex is compressed laterally and is truncate or sometimes slightly emarginate; first 

 segment somewhat flattened above and bearing a circle of twenty-six tubercles; of 

 these, the anterior fourteen (seven on each side) are arranged in a single row, and 

 the style at the apex of each is longer than the tubercle itself; next to these are 

 four transverse pairs of tubercles, two pairs on each side of the segment, the two 

 tubercles composing the second pair being united at their bases ; following these 

 are four tubercles two on each side, in which, as also in the tubercles, comprising 

 the four pairs above mentioned, the style is shorter than the tubercle itself: besides 

 this circle of tubercles, there is also a transverse pair near the center of this segment; 

 second segment, on each side, bearing a subdorsal oblique pair of tubercles which 

 are united at their bases, a suprastigmatal cluster of five tubercles, three of which 

 are united at their bases, the other two being slightly above and on either side of 

 them; below this cluster is a single tubercle in front of which is a stout bristle; 

 third segment the same as the second except that the suprastigmatal cluster con- 

 tains only four tubercles, the anterior of the two single ones being absent; fourth 

 segment, on each side, bearing a subdorsal cluster of three tubercles united at their 

 bases, a suprastigmatal pair of tubercles which are also united at their bases, and 

 below them is a single tubercle; segments five to eleven are the same as the fourth; 



