336 
LIFE-HISTORIES OF AUSTRALIAN COLEOPTERA. 
palpi long and drooping; legs stout, long and mottled with black; 
the inner edge of the tarsi fringed with fine white hairs; tarsal 
claws ferruginous, the central ridge of the abdominal segments 
marked with a line of small blackish brown spots. 
The larva attaches itself to the underside of the leaf, when the 
larval skin splits and turns down over the pupa, remaining in 
this position about ten days. 
This is one of the commonest ladybirds about Sydney. Both 
beetle and larva feed upon the leaves of Solanaceous plants, 
gnawing the epidermis off in little wavy lines, causing dead 
patches all over the leaves. They were also very plentiful upon 
the leaves of Datura stramonium, on the seashore at Botany; a 
number that I took home were let out of the box, and a few days 
lafcer they were busy at work eating the leaves of the tomato 
plants. 
It is a handsome little beetle of a deep yellow colour mottled 
with irregular black spots; all the members of this genus, unlike 
others of the family, are phytophagous. 
In " Insect Life," 1891, Vol. iii. E2)ilachna corrupta is stated to 
have destroyed fully half the bean crop of New Mexico. 
An African species, E. hirta, is very destructive to potatoes 
and tomatoes. 
