Chkysomelxm;. 
361 
larva is soft, whitish, with few very short hairs, the head brown, 
the tiny round spiracles on the dorso-lateral line. Behind the head 
is a distinct pro thoracic shield, and over the anus is a flat black 
plate with short hairs round ; this plate is at an angle to the long axis 
of the body, facing dorsally and posteriorly and may be for the pur¬ 
pose of enabling the larva to exert pressure by placing this against the 
wall of the tunnel. Chcetocnema basalts , Baly., is the flea beetle of 
rice, a small active beetle that leaps readily. This and other genera 
include the common flea beetles known as destructive to crops in all 
countries. Several species are found in Indian crops attacking wheat, 
sann hemp, mustard and brinjal. The larvse of these small beetles are 
miners in the tissues of the plant. Luperomorpha weisi is recorded as 
attacking mango trees in Purulia (Indian Mus. Notes, Vol. Y, p. 125). 
Haltica cyanea, Web., is a common steel-blue beetle of moderate 
size. It breeds freely in the rains 
and until December, the black larvae 
feeding on a very common weed, 
Ammannia rotundifolia ( Lyihracece) 
which comes up abundantly after 
the rains. This species is curiously 
plentiful in some years, but is very 
localised and swarms have been 
observed clustered in a patch in a single field ; they are gregarious when 
abundant, a patch of ground sometimes black with them. The winter 
is spent normally in pupation in the soil, the beetles emerging in March 
and waiting till focd can be obtained. This is one of the perfectly 
harmless insects so often reported as injurious, owing to its presence 
in large numbers in crops. Its ally, H. ccerulea, is the prey of the bug 
Zicrona ccerulea as is probably also this species (see Pentatomidee 
below). 
Galerucini .—Over 250 species are recorded and this number will 
probably be doubled when the Fauna volume comes to be prepared. 
Oides occurs plentifully in forest localities and occasionally in the 
plains in the form of 0. bipunctata, F., an oval orange beetle with a 
black blotch of varied size on each elytron. The larva is yellow and 
feeds on the leaves of the common wild creeper Vitis trifolia ; when 
full-grown it pupates on the leaf under a few coarse threads. 
Fig. 235.— Haltica cyanea 
lakva, x 4. 
