332 
TRANSFORMATIONS OF INSECTS. 
are making lace work of the leaves, and the beetles are crawling 
upon the plants. This hanging up of the nymph resembles the 
favourite position of many chrysalides of the Lepidoptera , and 
it is somewhat remarkable that another genus of these beetles 
has larvae which construct movable tubes, in which they live, 
and which they carry about after the fashion of many caterpillars. 
The last family of the order of the Coleoptera that comes 
under our notice is that of the Coccinellidce , or the Lady Birds. 
These are great favourites with children, and even with col- 
lectors ; and popular sympathy is extended towards them, and 
certainly very properly, for they do much good by preventing 
the excessive multiplication of plant lice, and, moreover, they 
are very pretty things. The lady birds with seven spots ( Cocci - 
nella septempunctata ) are very common in Europe, and, indeed, 
in Asia, Africa, and America. They are small insects, which 
are so well known that they need not be described, but it may 
be often noticed that when they are alarmed or laid hold of 
they fold up their limbs and eject from the joints a yellow 
mucilaginous fluid, which has a very disagreeable odour. Immense 
swarms of these insects are sometimes observed, especially on the 
south-eastern coasts of England, and they have been described 
as extending in dense masses for miles. The adult insects do 
not eat much, but the larvae consume enormous quantities of 
the little insects which are so injurious to vegetation, and they 
may be seen chasing, or rather creeping up to, the plant lice, 
and eating one after the other, taking the whole set on a leaf 
or stem in regular order. The larva is of a lead grey colour, 
and has a broad yellow spot in front of the head, three little 
red spots on the sides, besides black spots and little bunches 
of hairs. When about to undergo its transformation the insect 
attaches itself to a leaf just like the caterpillar of a butterfly. 
In the engraving on page 331 the ladybirds are seen upon the 
leaves in the centre. There are two larvae on the right hand, and a 
nymph on a solitary leaf above the others. 
