. Elementary entomology . Fig. 237. The nine-spotted ladybird-beetle {Cocci- tiella novemnotata), — adult and larva (After Chittenden) family feed on plant-lice, scales, and other soft-bodied insects, both as adults and as larvae, and may be found wherever their prey becomes abundant. In general the common yellow or red, black-spotted species feed on plant-lice, while the smaller black species, marked with red or yellowish spots, feed on scales. So common are the lady- birds among colonies of plant-lice that they are frequently mis- taken as the parents of the aphides, and the misguided grower
. Elementary entomology . Fig. 237. The nine-spotted ladybird-beetle {Cocci- tiella novemnotata), — adult and larva (After Chittenden) family feed on plant-lice, scales, and other soft-bodied insects, both as adults and as larvae, and may be found wherever their prey becomes abundant. In general the common yellow or red, black-spotted species feed on plant-lice, while the smaller black species, marked with red or yellowish spots, feed on scales. So common are the lady- birds among colonies of plant-lice that they are frequently mis- taken as the parents of the aphides, and the misguided grower carefully picks them off and destroys them, thinking he is elimi- nating the cause of the aphid infestation, whereas he is really destroying nature's most efficient agents for its alleviation. The eggs are laid in little yellow masses on the leaves or bark where- ever food is abundant. The larvae are commonly about one fourth of an inch long, strongly tapering at either end, with long legs, and often marked with spiny processes. They run here and there in search of food, feed voraciously on any unlucky plant-lice or insects' eggs which fall in their path, and, when full grown, attach themselves to bark, leaves, or fences by the tip of the abdomen and there pupate, the cast larval skin often remaining over the pupa. The beetles hibernate over winter. The nine-spotted ladybird {Coccinclla g-notata) is one of the larger common yellow species, with nine black spots, and the little two-spotted ladybird {Adalia bipniictata) is smaller, slightly broader, and frequently associated with the former species. The twice-stabbed ladybird {Chilocorus bividncnis) is black with a red spot on each wing-cover. Its spiny larva is black, and, with the adult, feeds upon scale
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1, booksubjectentomology, bookyear1912
