362 
COLEOPTERA. 
Aulacophora is the commonest beetle genus in the plains with three 
common species. A. foveicollis , Kust. (= abdominalis, G. et H.), is 
Fig. 237.— Mimastra 
CYAXEA. 
Fig. 236.— Aulacophora 
foveicollis. [I. M. N.J 
deep orange above, while A. excavata, Baly., has the elytra deep blue, 
A. atripenms , Fabr., the elytra black, and A. downesi , By., the elytra 
black with a yellow basal patch. The last is rarer than the first three. 
There are a number of species of this genus and the whole classification of 
these beetles is in confusion. Though A. foveicollis , Kust., is extremely 
common, nothing is known of its life-history and all attempts to solve 
the problem hitherto have failed. It is a destructive insect to young 
cucurbitaceous plants, eating the leaves. (The larva of its ally Diabro- 
tica in America, mines in the stem a little below ground, while the 
beetle behaves as our species does.) Hoplasoma also includes several 
common species whose life-histories appear to be unknown. Mimastra 
cyanea , Ho., is principally a defoliator of forest trees and occasionally 
occurs in numbers. The beetle emits an acrid yellow fluid from the 
head. Several other species are common in jungle but not in cultivated 
areas. We figure all stages of Galerucella rugosa , Jac. (Plate XXII), 
whose larva feeds on Polygonum ; this genus and Haplosonyx are abun¬ 
dantly represented even in the plains. Another Galerucella is des¬ 
tructive (in its larval and imaginal stages) to the Waternut or Singhara 
crop ( Trapa bispinosa), destroying the leaves of this valuable plant. 
