Endomychid^. INSECTS. Coocinei.lid^. 237 
one of a pretty numerous genus of Australian Chryso- 
melidse. The Eumolpi are often very gloriously 
coloured ; the name Eumolpus is well applied to these 
brightly-burnished insects. Here come the various 
Colaspidas and many other groups. 
In Australia we have the extensive genus or group 
called Paro^sis— yellow, dirty brownish-yellow, black, 
and rarely green, being ordinary colours. 
Section— PSEUDO-T RIMERA. 
Professor Westwood has wisely substituted this term 
for Latreille’s name Trimeka. In most of the insects 
of this great primary section of the Beetles, the 
tarsi are apparently composed of only three joints, 
the second of which, however, is bilobed, and receives 
between its lobes the minute third joint, and the base 
of the fourth or terminal joint. It has been seen that 
some insects really Pentamerous in their affinities are 
Heteromerous, and some Pseudo-tetramerous longi- 
corns, &c., are Pentamerous, So that five is actually 
the normal number of joints. 
Family— EROTYLID^. 
A very well marked family of Beetles, chiefly exotic. 
The tarsi are pseudo-tetramerous. The South Ameri- 
can species are particularly showy and handsome. 
They form the subject of a fine monograph by Lacor- 
daire ; but since his time many new species have been 
met with by my friend, H. W. Bates. Yellow spots 
and bands, or red spots and bands on a black ground, 
are the prevailing colours. The antennae have a three- 
jointed club. The various species of Languria be- 
longing to this group are fungivorous ; that is to say, 
the larvae live on fungi, on trees or on the ground, 
but especially those with small pores of the Boletus 
kind. Engidae and Erotylidae seem to pass into each 
other, or surely it may be said that they are one and 
the same. I cannot help pointing out a very curious 
Langurioid genus with large flat tarsi from India, which 
I described some years ago, naming it after my friend 
and coadjutor, the late accomplished Edward Double- 
day. It is the Douhledayia viator. I intended to 
allude, in the specific name, long legs, and curious feet, 
to the love of travel of my late friend. 
Family— ENDOMYCHID^, 
Tlie largest of these, forming the genus Eumarplius 
and allies, are found in Java, Malacca, Borneo, and 
other parts of tropical Asia and its islands. In South 
America are found several genera, such as Coryno- 
malus and Stenotarsus. The larvae of a species of the 
latter genus, are sometimes found feeding in company 
with the perfect insects on the minute fungous, or 
perhaps lichenous substance, on the surface of old, 
damp, dead wood — broken branches of forest trees, 
old barked stumps, or pailings around plantations. 
Many of the smaller species, specially of the genera 
Epopterus, Anidrytus, Phalantha, &c., are found only 
on slender dead tvpigs, which are generally spotted 
with minute fungi. 
The genus Lycoperdina found in the puff-ball (see 
fig. 139), and the pretty scarlet and black-spotted 
Endomychus coccineus, are British species of this 
family. 
Fig. 139. 
Eumorphus and its allies are all Eastern. The 
species are noble-like insects, monographed by Gers- 
taker, an able German entomologist. Their elytra 
have a broad dilated margin, and some species are 
armed with large spines and hooks. 
Family— COCCINELLID.^ {The Ladybirds). 
This family is a very extensive one, though the 
insects composing it are seldom larger, while most of 
them are smaller, than our own little common Lady- 
bird Coccinella hipunctata. The eggs of Lady-birds 
are smooth, oval, and of a yellow colour. They are 
usually gummed by one end to the under side of leaves, 
and are placed in clusters. When hatched the larva 
is generally black and slender-bodied, tapering behind, 
and with six legs in front. As soon as this little 
crocodile-like larva comes to an aphis, he seizes it, 
and leisurely devours it, leaving only the empty skin. 
From this habit the family has been named Aphidi- 
PHAGi, that is to say. Aphis- eaters. As he grows, he 
becomes spotted with red or yellow tubercles. After 
having attained his full dimensions, which is not before 
he has eaten hundreds of aphides, he fixes himself by 
the tail to a leaf or a post ; and, hanging with his head 
downwards, the skin cracks down the middle of the 
back, and the smooth pupa may be seen partly pro- 
truding out of the prickly skin of the larva, which still 
continues in some species to cover the pupa on each 
side and beneath. Exposed as the pupa is, upon the 
surface of a leaf or of the bark, it is probably the 
design of Nature in providing it with this prickly skin, 
to save it from being discovered and destroyed by 
birds. 
In about a fortnight the hard outer skin cracks, and 
out crawls the Lady-bird, so familiar to every child. 
The French children call the Lady-birds “ betes a bon 
Dieu” — a pretty idea, and pleasingly inviting protection 
to the little useful insect so named. 
We know from Freeman’s “ Life of the Rev, William 
Kirby,” that Mr. Kirby was first particularly attracted 
to the study of insects by a Lady-bird. In the “ Intro- 
