The Genus _Epilachna_ contains all our plant-feeding lady-bird beetles, two of which are common. The 28-spot lady-bird, _Epilachna 28-punctata_, has a wide range extending from China and India to all parts of Australia; it measures about ⅓ of an inch in length, is of a dull yellowish brown tint marked with rounded black spots, and clothed with a fine pubescence. Crotch says: “This species varies almost to infinity, and gradually runs into the common 6-spotted type, so that I cannot give any structural differences.” Its curious gregarious larvae are dull yellow covered with black spined tubercles; about Sydney they are often found upon the foliage of the trumpet flower (_Datura stramonium_), but in the north of N.S. Wales often damage the foliage of potatoes. _E. guttatopustulata_ ranges from Tasmania to North Australia, and is a common insect in the Richmond River scrubs, N.S.W.; it is a large beetle, easily recognised by the large, rounded, yellowish red blotch on the sides of the elytra. [Illustration: =Fig. 103.=--_Thea galbula_ (Mulsant). The Yellow-shouldered Lady-bird. (“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)] [Illustration: =Fig. 104.=--_Verania frenata_ (Erichson). The Striped Lady-bird. (“Agricultural Gazette,” N.S.W.)] The typical _Coccinella repanda_ measures ⅕ of an inch in length; it is a little, rounded, bright yellow beetle, with the head and thorax blackish, the elytra striped down the centre, and marked on either side with two irregular black V-shaped blotches. It has a wide range over Australia, and feeds upon all kinds of aphids, sometimes appearing in great numbers all over the country. _Leis conformis_ is a larger species, of a uniform bright orange yellow, thickly spotted with black. It is a common garden insect, where the clusters of its slender yellow eggs may be often noticed attached to the bark of aphis infested trees; and its elongated, smoky tinted larvae, blotched on the sides with orange, may be often watched feeding upon rose or peach aphis. _Thea galbula_ is a dainty little lady-bird, with the dorsal surface bright pale yellow, marked with black in the centre of the thorax; the dorsal stripe down the centre of the elytra connects two pairs of black blotches crossing the centre and base. It measures about ⅙ of an inch in length, and is at times common in our gardens. _Verania frenata_ is ⅙ of an inch; it is yellow, with the thorax black behind, and with three stripes of the same colour down the elytra. It has a wide range from Tasmania to New Caledonia and the Malayan Islands.