248 THE BUTTERFLY VIVARIUM. 



plants, a leaf being always selected which is sure to 

 become peopled with their future prey — the juicy 

 and delicious Aphides. The larvse are nearly black, 

 with a few obscure red marks. After the formation 

 of the chrysalis, whdoh is somewhat in the form of 

 that of Chrysomela Tremulce, No. 6, Plate VII., the 

 perfect insect comes forth in a few days. The insect 

 in its perfect state still feeds voraciously on the 

 Aphides, and generally retires to the under side of 

 the leaf when its meal is completed. When the 

 natural food fails, as the autumn advances, these 

 insects retire in colonies beneath the bark of trees, or 

 other places of shelter, for the winter. In the spring 

 they soon pair, and deposit their eggs upon another 

 year's crop of rose-leaves, and so another generation 

 of Lady-birds is provided for. 



These pretty little Beetles have given their names 

 as a typical distinction to a large family of insects 

 termed Coccinellidce, which, calculating all the 

 exotic kinds, contains twenty-two genera and above 

 one hundred species, distributed in the five quarters, 

 or rather divisions of the earth. Most of the foreign 

 species are of rather dull colours, none surpassing 

 the brilliancy of our little native scarlet kinds. In 

 some seasons, when " the Ply," a species of Aphis, 

 is most numerous in hop-grounds, the Lady-birds 



