LIBRARY

594
COLLEGE ENTOMOLOGY
developed and present in most species. Elytra covering the body, rarely contrasting
in color with the rest of the body. Abdomen short, wit.h five visible
sternites.
The adults vary in size from Longitarsus obliteratus Ross, 1.0-1.3 mm., of
Europe, and Epitrix brevis Schwarz, 1.5 mm., of North America, to the kangaroo
beetle, Sagria papuana Jacoby, of Papua, which is 25 mm. long. Timarcha
coriaria Laicharting, of Europe, may attain a length of 18 mm. The adults are
mostly terrestrial but a number of genera are semiaquatic in that they inhabit
aquatic plants and the larvre live in the submerged roots and stems. All forms
FtG. 204. The strawberry rootworm. Paria canella (Fab.). Eggs. adult. and lorva. (From
A History oj Entomology.)
are phytophagous and mostly feed on living plants. Some are termitophiIous
and probably scavengers. The females are largely oviparous but a very few are
viviparous. The eggs are laid singly or in clusters on or in the plant tissues or in
the soil near the host plants. The larvre are exceedingly varied in form and
color; free-living, plant-inhabiting species, somewhat caraboid in form, and
pigmented and often rugose, tuberculate, or spined and some metallic. Secluded
and subterranean forms may be subcylindrical, with pigmented head and pronotal
shield and the body white or pale yellowish. All are legged and move
about freely. Termitophilous forms are usually scarabreoid and are enveloped
in smooth cases which first surround the eggs, then are enlarged and carried
about and eventually closed for pupation. Larvre of some of the tortoise beetles
have an anal fecal fork which supports a flat roof of fecal material and debris
over the body. The larvre feed exposed on the plants or live in the stems, in
galls, in leaf mines, in or on the roots of plants, in ants' nests underground, or
rarely in the stems and roots of submerged aquatic plants. Pupation normally
takes place in a cell in the ground or in or on the plant tissues. Some aquatic
species spin more or less definite cocoons in which to pupate.
The family, one of the four largest of the order, contains approximately
24.000 species. These are widely distributed but are most abundant in the