Beetles of British Guiana. 83 
terminate in a flattened club formed of three points. 
The Erotylus histrio a. somewhat cosmopolitan species, 
is often selected by authors as a type of this genus. It 
is about an inch long, and when looked at from above it 
appears diamond-shaped. Its ground colour is black, 
but its wing-cases are crossed by six or seven bands 
formed of confluent yellow spots. It has also a reddish 
spot on the shoulder and apex of each wing-case. There 
are a good many species of Erotylidae in British Guiana, 
and M. LACORDAIRE, a brother of the great preacher of 
that name, who was well acquainted with the Coleoptera 
of this part of the world, has written an excellent 
monograph on this genus. 
The Coccinellidae are familiarly known to us as lady- 
birds. Coccinella is a diminutive of the Latin word 
coccum meaning a kernel or seed of a berry. These 
inse6ts are small and closely resemble each other. There 
are said to be more than 1,000 different species of this 
family, but it is often very difficult to distinguish one 
species from another. They are semi-spherical in shape 
and their colour is generally red or yellow spotted with 
black. They are as a rule rather minute, but may be 
seen shining like gems on the leaves in our gardens after 
a shower of rain. Their larvae are said to be very useful, 
inasmuch as they eat the plant-lice. 
The Heteromera or Unequal-jointed beetles are con- 
sidered by most authors the second general division of 
Coleoptera, but they are not very conspicuous among the 
beetles of British Guiana. Their four anterior tarsi have 
five joints each, and the two posterior ones only four. 
The habits of both the larvae and perfe6t inserts of this 
division are very diverse and do not appear to have been 
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