126 
BRITISH BEETLES. 
necessary to sweep them away from paths and 
windows. They fly strongly, but are not rapid or 
strong walkers, and have, both in the condition of 
larva and perfect insect, a habit of distilling a pecu- 
liar and pungent yellow oily fluid, similar to that of 
certain of the Chrysomelidce, and which, also, has been 
stated to be a specific for toothache. 
Their patches of small yellow eggs can often be 
seen deposited by the parent insect on plants infested 
by Aphides; and the slaty-blue larvae, which are 
tuberculated and spotted, contracted behind, and 
with six conspicuous legs in front, may bo observed 
crawling about shrubs in gardens or on walls pre- 
paratory to the change to pupa, which is fastened 
by the tail, and does not get rid of the skin of the 
larva. 
The large seven-spot and smaller two-spot ladybirds 
are well known to all observers ; the latter insect 
is exceedingly variable, specimens of it occurring of 
every intermediate gradation between red with a rudi- 
mentary dot on each elytron to entirely black. Oddly 
enough, it is extremely difficult to obtain a variety of 
the first-mentioned beetle. 
Some of the species, such as 13 -punctata and 19- 
punctata, frequent reedy or marshy places ; these are 
more elongate than the rest, and, when alive, of a 
pinkish tone, with many spots. Others, obliterata 
(bearing an M-like mark on its thorax), hieroglyphica 
(varying to deep black), 18 -guttata, oblongo-guttata, 
and ocellata (the largest, and conspicuous for the 
yellow rim surrounding each of its spots during life), 
are peculiar to fir-trees; and a few, especially the 
delicately-dotted lemon-coloured 22-pimdata (Plate 
