228 Nerve-winged Insects; Scorpion-flies; Caddis-flies 



part of the summer; here the larva changes to a pupa. In about a month 

 after the larva leaves the water the adult insect appears. The eggs are 

 then soon laid; these are attached to stones or other objects overhanging 

 the water. They are laid in blotch-like masses which are chalky-white 

 in color and measure from half an inch to nearly an inch in diameter. A 

 single mass contains from two thousand to three thousand eggs. When 

 the larvae hatch they at once find their way into the water, where they 

 remain until full-grown." 



In the Kansas corn-fields I used to find certain wonderfully beautiful, 

 frail, gauzy-winged insects resting or walking slowly about on the great 

 smooth green leaves. The eyes of these insects shone like burnished copper 

 or shining gold, and this with the fresh clear green (tinged sometimes with 

 bluish, sometimes with yellowish) of the lace-like wings and soft body made 

 me think them the most beautiful of all the insects I could find. But a 

 nearer acquaintanceship was always unpleasant; when "collected" they 

 emitted such a disagreeable odor that admiration changed to disgust. These 

 lace-winged or golden-eyed flies are common all over the country and com- 

 pose a family of Neuroptera 

 called Chrysopidae. All except 

 two species of the family belong 

 to the single genus Chrysopa, 

 which includes more than thirty 

 species found in the United 

 States. In the Chrysopidae the 

 larvae are not aquatic as in the 

 family Sialidae, but are active 

 and fiercely predaceous little 

 creatures called aphis-lions, that 

 crawl about over herbage and 

 shrubbery in search of living 

 aphids (plant-lice) and other 

 small soft-bodied insects. The 



aphis-lion (Fig. 314) has a pair 

 FIG. 314. The eolden-eyed or lace-winged fly, , , , . , , , , 



Chrysopa sp.; adult, eggs, larva, "aphis-lion," of lon g> sharp-pointed, slender 

 and pupal cocoons on the under side of leaf, jaws which are grooved on the 



inner face. Having found a 



plant-louse it pierces its body with the sharp jaw-points, and holds it up, so 

 that the blood of its victim runs along these grooves into its thirsty throat. 

 The Chrysopa larvae will bravely attack insects larger than themselves, or will 

 quite as readily prey on the defenceless eggs of neighbor insects, or indeed of 

 their own kind. Indeed, probably because of this egg-sucking habit the female 

 lace-winged fly deposits her eggs each on the tip of a tiny slender stem, about 



