134 
COLEOPTERA. 
beetle is about three twentieths of an inch long. Its head, 
wing-covers, and body beneath are dark blue ; its thorax and 
legs are dull orange-red ; the upper side of its abdomen is 
also orange-colored ; and the antennae and feet are blackish. 
The females have a very odd appearance before they have 
laid their eggs, their abdomen being enormously swelled out 
like a large orange-colored ball, wliich makes it very difficult 
for them to move about. I have found these insects on the 
knot-grass in every month from April to September inclusive. 
The larvae eat the leaves of the same plant. 
Having described the largest, the most elegant, and the 
most common of our Chrysomelians, I must omit all the rest, 
except the most splendid, which was called Enmolpus auratus 
by Fabricius, that is, the gilded Eumolpus (Plate II. Ffg. 1). 
It is of a brilliant golden green color above, and of a deep 
purplish green below ; the legs are also purple-green ; but 
the feet and the antennae are blackish. The thorax is 
narrower behind than the wing-covers, and the rest of the 
body is more oblong oval than in the foregoing Chrysome- 
lians. It is about three eighths of an inch long. This splen- 
did beetle may be found in considerable numbers on the 
leaves of the dog’s-bane ( Apocynnm Androscemifoliuni), which 
it devours, during the months of July and August. The 
larvae are unknown to me. 
The fourth family of the leaf-eating Chrysomelians consists 
of the Cryptocephalians (Cryptqcephalidas), so named from 
the principal genus Cryptocephalus , a word signifying con- 
cealed head. These insects somewhat resemble the beetles of 
the preceding family ; but they are of a more cylindrical form, 
and the head is bent down, and nearly concealed in the fore 
part of the thorax. Their larvae are short, cylindrical, whit- 
ish grabs, which eat the leaves of plants. Each one makes 
for itself a little cylindrical or egg-shaped case, of a substance 
sometimes resembling clay, and sometimes like horn, with 
an opening at one end, within which the grab lives, putting 
out its head and fore legs when it wishes to eat or to move. 
