The Colorado Beetle. 



149 



the early part of the year. The warmer the day the more 

 willingly do the insects fly. 



The beetles at Tilbury (and those kept in confinement) were 

 to be seen in copula at all times, but especially during the 

 bright sunshine. Each female usually deposits from 500 to 

 700 eggs ; as many as 1,000 have been counted according to 

 Riley. Two pregnant females examined from Tilbury 

 contained respectively fifteen and sixty eggs. The ova are 

 evidently produced gradually and deposited over a consider- 

 able length of time, the beetles living for some weeks during 

 the summer. The eggs are elongated oval, in form, of an 

 orange colour, and are deposited in clusters of from nine to 

 forty ; one batch found at Tilbury contained only nine, another 

 thirty-five. They seem to be nearly always placed on the 

 under side of the leaf, and are attached to it by one end. 

 Instead of being separated by short spaces from one another, 

 those under observation were packed tightly together in a 

 bunch. They resemble the ova of some of the Cocinellidce or 

 Lady-birds, but are much larger than those of any of our 

 native species. Riley says they hatch out in less than a 

 week ; those under observation were kept ten days before the 

 larvae came out. The females commence to deposit their eggs 

 when the plants are quite young. The young larvae observed 

 were of a dull reddish - brown colour, and bear some 

 resemblance to the larvae of the Lady- birds. As they grow 

 they become paler in colour, varying from dull brickdust red 

 to almost orange in hue, with the head, legs, and posterior part 

 of the first segment black, and with two lateral rows of black 

 tubercule-like spots, the upper row being the largest and 

 composed of seven spots ; as the larvae become mature, the 

 body is somewhat swollen and more or less arched, the apex 

 terminating in a kind of sucker, the upper part of the two 

 apical segments being black. When full grown the larva is 

 rather more than half an inch long when extended. Larval 

 life lasts in America from two to three weeks ; judging from 

 those kept under observation taken at Tilbury it lasts quite a 

 month in this country. 



The leafage is devoured very ravenously at times by the 

 larvae, which attach themselves to both upper and under side 



