386 
THE LADYBIRD. 
yellowish-orange. The whole of the body is boldly marked with deep black and snowy-white 
of a silvery lustre. The Plectodera scalator , a much larger species, belongs also to the 
Longicorns, and, like the preceding species, is marked with black and white, though the 
arrangement of the tints is different. 
The largest of the Tortoise Beetles, or Cassididse, is the Aspidomorpha amplissima. 
This broad and flat insect is found in the Philippines. These insects derive their popular 
name from the tortoise-like shape of the body, which is so expanded that the whole of the 
limbs are concealed under its shelter. Many of these beetles are a light green, or greenish 
brown, and when they are stationary upon a leaf they can with difficulty be distinguished. 
The larva is remarkable for possessing a large forked appendage upon the end of the tail, 
which turns over the back and is loaded with excrementitious substances, so that the creature 
can hardly be seen under the load which it bears. 
In the present species the body is chestnut-brown, and the elytra are furnished with wide, 
thin, and semi-transparent margins. Their centre is spotted with black. 
Passing by several families, we come to our last example of the Coleoptera, the Chryso- 
mela cerealis , a member of a very large family. 
All the Chrysomelidse are round-bodied, and in most cases are very brilliantly colored with 
shining green, purple, blue and gold, of a peculiar but indescribable lustre. They are slow 
5 4 6 
2 3 1 
LADYBIRDS.— 1. Micraspis duodecimpunctata. (In natural size.) 2. Coccinella septempunctata and two larvce. (In natural size.) 3. Its magnified 
larva among aphides. 4. Coccinella impustulata. (In natural size.) 5. Two different specimens of Coccinella dispar. 6. Chilocorus bipustu- 
laius. (In natural size.) The line indicates the average length of these beetles. 
walkers, but grasp the leaves with a wonderfully firm hold. One of the genera belonging to 
this family contains the largest European specimen of these beetles, commonly known by the 
name of the Blood y-nose Beetle ( Timarcha tenebricosa ), on account of the bright red fluid 
which it ejects from its month and the joints of its legs when it is alarmed. This fluid is held 
by many persons to be a specific in case of toothache. It is applied by means of permitting 
the insect to emit the fluid on the finger and then rubbing it on the gnm, and the effects are 
said to endure for several days. The larva of this beetle is a fat-bodied, shining, dark-green 
grub which may be found clinging to grass, moss, or hedgerows in the early summer. They 
are so like the perfect insect that their identity cannot be doubted. 
The family of the Coccinellidse, or Ladybirds, is allied to the Chrysomelidse, and is well 
known on account of the pretty little spotted insects with which we have been familiar from 
our childhood, and of which our illustration gives an interesting collection. Though the 
Ladybird is too well known to need description, it may be mentioned that it is an extremely 
useful insect, feeding while in the larval state on the aphides that swarm on so many of our 
