102 CHRYSANTHEMUMS. 
by their golden eyes and gauze-like wings ; nor yet to destroy 
the pretty little thread-like filaments with the eggs perched 
on the top, which may be found on the shoots of plants. 
Ladybird Beetles (Coccinella). — We figure one 
species of the pretty little Ladybird Beetles. These active 
little creatures with their scarlet coats and black spots will 
be found running freely over chrysanthemums and many 
other plants during the summer, and if they are carefully 
watched will be observed attacking any hapless green-fly that 
may come in their way. The Seven-Spotted Ladybird (see 
below) is the most commonly met with. All, however, may 
be easily distinguished by their brilliant colour, and wherever 
seen they should certainly not be interfered with, as they 
The Friendly Ladybird Beetles. 
A genus of small beetles with scarlet coats and black spots. Their larva, known as 
** crocodiles,” teed ravenously on greenflies. Fig. 1, leaf containing a cluster of eggs ; 
2, egg magnified ; 3, larva or crocodile magnified ; 4, line showing its natural length ; 
5 and 6, pupa ; 7, Two-Spotted Ladybird (Coccinella bipunctata) ; 8. Coccinella dispar ; 
9, Seven-Spotted Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata). 
help to clear plants generally of one of the gardener’s worst 
pests — the green fly. Still more useful and still more 
voracious than the parents are the larvae, commonly known 
as “ Crocodiles " or “ Alligators.” These creatures are 
hatched from buff-coloured eggs, which are laid underneath 
the leaves by the Ladybird Beetles. As soon as the httle 
“ Crocodiles ” begin to move about they at once devour the 
aphides, a single specimen being able to clear off hundreds 
of these pests in a remarkably short space of time. They 
live for about three weeks in the larval stage, then turn to 
pupae, and in three weeks emerge as perfect beetles, ready 
to lay their clusters of buff-coloured eggs underneath the leaves. 
