COLEOFTERA — BEETLES. 247 



model of that of the small Land Tortoise. The terms 

 "Lady-cow" and " Vache-a-Dieu " have arisen 

 from the curious faculty possessed by this little 

 insect of exuding a yellowish milky fluid, which was 

 once deemed an almost miraculous cure for tooth- 

 ache and cholic, for which purposes it formerly held 

 a place in the " Materia Medica." This fluid has a 

 rather disagreeable odour, and is doubtless a means 

 of defence, analogous to that possessed by many other 

 insects, and some of the higher animals. The 

 common Two-spotted and Six-spotted kinds are 

 shown in Plate VI., both in the larva state and in 

 the perfect form. These two apparently different 

 insects are simply the two sexes of one land, which 

 were, however, described as distinct species by all 

 the entomologists of the last generation, to whom 

 Coccinella Variabilis, another species, is indebted 

 for above twenty names from different authors. This 

 extreme disposition to vary in colour and markings 

 is now well known, and careful investigations have 

 considerably reduced the supposed number of dis- 

 tinct species. The eggs of the best known species 

 are bright yellow, small, flattish, and of oval form ; 

 they are deposited close together, in patches of 

 twenty or thirty, and are to be found during the 

 summer months glued to the leaves of various 



