This is the largest species of the true Lady-birds (Coccinellidae) that occurs in Pennsylvania, and it seems to have elicited very little attention as a destructive insect, for the reason, perhaps, that the Coccinellans have been generally represented as essentially aphidiphagous in their gastronomical habits; that is, they are said to feed almost exclusively on plant-lice. (Aphids.) They are a very common beetle; perhaps, on account of their size, better known than any other species of their family. They are nearly or quite the size of the "Colorado potato beetle," but more hemispherical in form; lemon yellow in color, and the thorax and elytra well covered with large round black spots. When taken in the hand they exude a clear yellow liquid of an unpleasant odor, which appears to come from between the abdominal segments; and the larva has the same habit. A few of them are found every season, and they are widely diffused; and, although they seem scarcely to have provoked a complaint, yet from what I shall have to say about them in this contribution, it will be evident that they possess the possibilities of destructiveness in no ordinary degree; at least to the great cucubitacious family of plants.

Both the larva and the imago feed on these plants, and those, as well as the ova and pupa, may be found there at the same time.

In the summer of 1842, I noticed this insect in immense numbers on a wild and worthless cucur-bitaceous vine (Sicyos angulatus) in Donegal township, Lancaster county, and the whole plant, although a vigorous one, seemed to be blighted; the leaves crisp, or wilted as if scalded; and almost every leaf thus wilted, had on the under side, from two to half a dozen of these lady-birds feeding upon them. I did not notice either eggs, larva or pupa, although they must have been there at the same time. I would not have noticed them in my recent observations, had I not lifted up the leaves and looked beneath them. At the above period this insect was catalogued as Coccinella borealis, and generally supposed to possess the carnivorous characteristics of the other species of the genus; being then a mere novice in Entomology, I thought I might have been mistaken in the species, and hence I did not feel like pitting my single observation against existing records. Subsequently, however, on various occasions, I found these insects in limited numbers on pumpkin and squash vines, and at least once on the cucumber; I also obtained specimens of the larva from which I bred the beetle.

About twenty years ago I captured between four and five hundred of these beetles, in the month of March, under the bark of an old tree that stood in a field where corn and pumpkins had been cropped the preceding year; and they were then in their winter hibernation. Perhaps fifty of them had crawled out and were basking in the sun, and the remainder occupied a deep cavity under the bark. This established the fact that this insect passes the winter under some convenient cover near the place where it had bred during the previous summer, and would suggest the idea of seeking for them and destroying them in early spring.

The present season I have had this insect under continuous observation, in all its various stages of development, from the first of July until the first of October, and I am satisfied it possesses the possibility of being as fatal to the Cucurbitaceae as the Colorado potato beetle is to the Solanaceae; and that when we form an estimate of the good qualities of "Lady-birds," we must base it upon intelligent discrimination.

We have on our limited premises, and for some years permitted to grow, a few vines of the " Wild Balsam Apple," (Echinocystis lobatus) one of the most vigorous runners on friendly soil, belonging to its order. About the first of July I noticed a single specimen of Epilachna borealis on this vine, and a day or two afterwards I noticed several groups of yellowish eggs - from 20 to 25 in each - from one cluster of which the young larva were in the act of exclusion - small, feeble, hairy dots, or bunches of dark, diverging bristles. I concluded I would let them pursue their course unmolested, just to notice their transformations, and test their possibilities.

I had some difficulty in determining the actual number of broods this insect was capable of producing in one season; but, from the fact the individuals of a single group, which I had under special observation, passed through all their transformations from ova to imago within the space of one month, I concluded there were not less than three, although there appeared to be a dozen. The female Epilachna, like the female Doryphora, does not deposit her eggs all at one time, in one place, nor on one day; therefore, the eggs, the larva in its various stages of growth, the pupa, and the adult insect, may all be present on the vines they infest at the same time, and the second and last named, both voraciously occupied in feeding upon the leaves. Each individual of these three broods, if a female, is capable of producing about one hundred beetles, and for the time being the adult consumes as much as the young. The larva moults five times (perhaps oftener), and after each moult it becomes less greenish and more yellowish in color, and after the last moult it is lemon yellow, bristled all over with yellow spines with blackish ends. It is then nearly as large as the beetle itself; the eyes black, and a sluggish and greedy feeder, without apparent regard to approaching danger.

But it is always found on the under side of the leaf, which, being wounded by its presence, wilts and curls around it, affording it protection against any thing that might be hurled upon it from above.

The pupal period is from two to five days, according to temperature, and it is about the same with the incubation of the egg. The pupal transformation is very simple - merely a fastening of the caudal end of the abdomen to the leaf, a dorsal splitting of the skin and pushing it down to the lower end, where it remains a bristling bunch until the evolution of the beetle takes place; after which the transparent integument and spines still remain. The pupa might easily be mistaken for a contracted last stage of the larva; but on closer observation the rudimental elytra and feet become apparent, also the eyes, antennae, and a number of dark dashes and dots, apparently corresponding with the spots on the mature beetle. The larvae are able to walk up a very smooth surface; some that I had confined in a glass jar walked up not only the sides of the jar, but also across the under side of the glass lid, and pupated there. There is quite a distinction in the manner of feeding between the larva and the imago. The former eats off only the lower integument and the parenchyma, leaving the upper integument and nervures intact; whilst the latter eats the whole leaf, or as much of it as it can before it becomes too crisp.

Wherever you see a wilting leaf with a hole or two cut through it, by lifting up the edges of said leaf you may find from one to a half dozen great Lady-birds feasting on it; and thus they rapidly pass from one leaf to another, ever seeming to be in pursuit of fresh provender.

Now, in regard to the injury they are capable of inflicting on the vegetation they infest, it, of course, don't amount to much so long as they confine themselves to the vines I have named; but may they not, under favorable circumstances, also attack those plants most nearly allied? - the cucumber, the muskmelon and the canteloupe for instance - especially since they were accompanied on the Echinocystis by Diabrotica vittata and 12-punctata, the former of which is the notorious "striped cucumber beetle." This companionship may indicate a similarity of taste among them. As before stated, they have long been known to infest the pumpkin and squash families, but as these latter are so rough and robust they do not seem to have injured them much; but that is merely a question of numbers.

As to their possibilities, under my observations, I can give you the sum and substance in a few words. After this vine gets a good start we can almost see it grow, and it continues to grow until arrested by the first heavy frost in the fall. This season the Lady-birds followed it up from the base, defoliating or skeletonizing it as they ascended, and prematurely arrested its growth. This plant will grow as long as the main vine is intact and is connected with the ground, but these beetles headed it off, and caused its premature decay. Only a small portion of its worthless fruit matured, and the pods were only half the size of former years. This Lady-bird needs watching.

Lancaster, Pa.