43 



day and night, without holidays or repose, protecting our fields. They never touch the 

 smallest thing. They are occupied entirely in arresting thieves, and they desire no salary 

 but the body of the thief himself." 



Lady Birds. 



Order, Coleoptera, Family, Coccinellidce. 



Lady bird, lady-bird, fly away home 



Your house is on fire and your children are burned. 



These words are no doubt familiar to all our readers, old and young, for, as Mr. R. 

 Rogers graphically says ((7«?2a6?. Vol. VI. No. 5): '-'Of all the painted populace 



that live in fields, and live ambrosial lives/ there is scarcely a family better known than 

 those which compose the last of all the tribe of Hard-shells, the Coccinellidae. To the 

 young and to the old, to the illiterate and to the scientist, they are equally familiar and 

 equally interesting. Popular sympathy is extended towards them by the elders, because 

 " they do much good in preventing the excessive multiplication of aphides, by the juveniles, 

 because they are very pretty little things and tamely pitter-patter to and fro, and their 

 supposed misfortunes affect deeply sensitive little hearts, while infantile accents lisp — 

 'lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, your house is on fire and your children are burned.' " 



We introduce here illustrations of some of the more common of our Canadian species. 



Fig. 28. Fig. 29. Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Fig. 32. 



Fig. 33. Fiv/. 34. Fig. 36. 



Fig. 28. Ninr '^ed Coccinella Coccinella novem-notata, Herbst.). 



Fig. 29. Plain Liady-Bird {Coccinella munda), Say. 



Fig. 30. Spotted Lady Bird {Hippodamia 7naculata), DeGeer. 



Fig. 31. Thirteen dotted Lady Bird {Hippodamia l3-punctata^ Linn.). 



Fig. 32. Convergent Lady Bird (Hippodamia convergens, Quer.). 



Fig. 33. Fifteen spotted Mysia (Mysia lopundata Oliv.). 



Fig. 34. (Chilocorus bmdnerus,) Mulsant. 



Fig. 35. Larva of Coccinella novem-notata, Herbst.). 



These will give a general idea of the appearance of these beetles, for they all have a strong 

 family likeness, so much so, that entomologists are sometimes at a loss to discriminate between 

 some species, which will not appear strange when we remember that there are over one thou- 

 sand species known, of which only some thirty have as yet been taken in Canada. 



The general shape of Lady Birds, when they are resting on a flat surface, may be 

 compared to one-half a split pea — flat underneath, and convex in both directions above. As 

 will be seen from the above illustrations, in some cases, the head of the inject scarcely pro- 

 jects beyond the circular outline of the body. Most of the Lady Birds are gaudy little crea- 



