COLEOPTERA. 
149 
in tlie ground. In about a fortnight’s time the perfect 
insects appear; they live through the winter in a torpid 
state, reviving in the spring; and now is the season for 
their devastations, for just as the two first cotyledons or 
seed-leaves of the turnips appear, the Flea-beetles attack 
them with their strong toothed mandibles and devour 
them. There is no remedy against their depredations. The 
only thing the farmer can do is to get his ground ready for 
an early sowing, and to watch his opportunity for putting 
in the turnip seed in warm and showery weather, which 
will force on the little plants and quickly get them out 
of their two seed-leaves, when, comparatively speaking, 
they will be safe. 
This last section, viz., the Trimer a (or Pseudotrimera ), 
is the smallest; the insects contained in this section are 
of different structure ; and there are really four joints 
in the tarsi, though apparently only three. Many of 
these insects feed on fungi. The Lady-bird-beetles 
(Coccinellcc ), of which the pretty little Coccinella sep- 
tempunctata is one of the commonest and best known, 
belong to this section. These are useful little beetles, 
as they devour, both in the larva and adult stage, the 
Aphides or Plant-lice, which cause so much damage. A 
figure of the seven-spotted Lady-bird will be seen on 
Plate VI., Fig. 10 ; another prettily-coloured beetle, 
resembling the Lady-bird, will be seen on the same 
_ * « 
Plate, Fig. 4. This is the Endomychus coccineus , often 
occurring under bark in fungoid growth ; the figure is 
magnified ; the natural size of the beetle being about 
the quarter-of-an-inch in length. 
Last summer (1874), I noticed several larvae of some 
small species of Coccinella , parasitic in the celLs of the 
