Jan. 1, 1869.] 



HAUDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



15 



APHIS LION AND LACEWING ELY. 



IN the latter end of August last year my attention 

 was attracted to an ivy-leaf, in the centre of 

 which was something white. I gathered it, and on 

 nearer!inspection found that there were about twenty 

 or twenty-five small white bodies elevated on an ex- 

 ceedingly fine footstalk, which again was attached 

 to the centre of a small glistening circular disc on 

 the upper surface of the leaf. Each was about the 

 third of an inch long, and the space they covered 

 did not exceed the size of a fourpeimy piece. I had 

 never seen anything of the kind before, and, fearing 

 lest I should not meet with it again, I took all the 

 care possible of it, and immersed the end of the 

 leafstalk in water. It put me more in mind of the 

 fructification of some of the new mosses than any- 

 thing else, and I imagined it was a minute fungus. 

 I looked at it from day to day, but it remained just 

 the same, even after the ivy -leaf dried up and became 

 brown. It did not seem to suffer from the loss of 

 moisture, but each little oval body stood up as stiff 

 and erect as ever on its tiny footstalk. Eor ten days 

 or a fortnight there was no change at all, and then 

 I had to go away ; fortunately, I returned just as 

 the mystery was being solved. Coming in within a 

 week, and in the middle of the day, I went to the 

 shelf on which they stood, and there, upon the mar- 

 ble and close to the bottle, I saw two or three little 

 black bodies crawling along. There were some on 

 the bottle, more on the old brown leaf, two were 

 leisurely descending the stalks from their elevated 

 cradles, and one was just emerging from its shell. 

 I was just in time to see the little colony burst into 

 life ; had I been a day later I should have felt satis- 

 fied it was a vegetable organism, as when the eggs 

 were open, the regularity of their toothed margins 

 tended to favour that idea. I had very little time 

 to spare, but popped a few into a pill-box ; and as 

 the microscope stood on the table ready 1o hand, I 

 put one into the live-box, so as to get some means 

 of identifying it subsequently ; I found it covered 

 with black hairs, and the possessor of an enormous 

 pair of jaws. . As I hurried away again, I wondered 

 what it was, when it occurred to me that such a 

 singular egg as this could never have escaped the 

 notice of Kirby and Spence. On turning to that 

 work, I was enabled to identify it as containing a 

 larva called the Aphis Lion. Not very long before, 

 out in the garden one evening with the same object 

 which led me to discover these eggs, just as it was 

 getting dusk, I noticed some fairy-like insect flitting 

 about, and scarcely visible. I made several inef- 

 fectual attempts to catch one ; and when at last I 

 succeeded in getting my hat over one on the grass, 

 and cautiously raised it, I was not clever enough to 

 prevent its getting away. At length I saw one 

 fairly settle on the palings, and having a small box 

 in my hand, I took off the lid and inverted the 



box over the creature, then dived into my pocket 

 for an envelope, which I slipped underneath the 

 box, and then gradually withdrew it as I put 

 on the lid. I conveyed it indoors, and exa- 

 mined it beneath a gas-lamp, and I found an insect 

 with a beautiful green body, large brilliant eyes like 

 polished copper, and two pairs of large membranous 

 wings, pale green, and reflecting the prismatic co- 

 lours. Its wings were folded together ; and as I 

 took hold of them to remove it from the box, I 

 became conscious of a most disagreeable smell ; so 

 that I popped it at once under a wineglass, and put 

 in also a bit of paper steeped in chloroform. The 

 smell is so pungent that you can taste it in your 

 mouth as soon as you can smell it ; what to compare 

 it to I do not know, but it reminded me of sul- 

 phurous acid. Bad as it was, I was rather gratified 

 by it than otherwise, for I thought so beautiful a 

 creature with so foul an odour was sure to be in 

 Kirby and Spence' s book, and there I found it, under 

 the name Chrysopa perla. Wonderful as it is for its 

 beautiful colour, for the brilliancy of its eyes, for the 

 lustre and delicate structure of the wings, and also 

 for the villainous nastiness of its perfume, it is no 

 less wonderful as producing the singular eggs which 

 1 have before described : the Aphis Lion is the larva 

 of the Chrysopa perla. They spin themselves a silken 

 shroud, that they may die to the winter, from which 

 they rise as the perfect insect in the following sum- 

 mer. It is curious that an insect so gorgeously got 

 up should fly only in the twilight, when its beauties 

 cannot be appreciated; perhaps, however, there 

 are eyes which can see more than ours ; but if there 

 are, I am afraid the owners, instead of admiring it as 

 a beautiful object, would admire it more as an article 

 of diet ; and doubtless for that reason it is supplied 

 with the means of emitting an odour which would 

 deter any created being, I shoidd imagine, from en- 

 tertaining such a thought for a moment. If any 

 of the egg clusters are found, it would be quite 

 worth while to transfer them to a conservatory, 

 especially if infested with aphides, as these form 

 the principal food of the larva in question. As soon 

 as hatched, they start off in their search of the in- 

 sects, and are said to require only half a minute to 

 suck all the juice out of the biggest aphis. They 

 are very voracious, only ceasing to eat when the 

 supply fails, and then they not unfrequently attack 

 each other. When gardening becomes more scien- 

 tific, and it is considered necessary to have some 

 little knowledge of the insects that are beneficial 

 as well as prejudicial to plants, the eggs of the 

 Chrysopa perla will doubtless possess some market 

 value, and will be carefully collected for the express 

 purpose of placing in greenhouses ; and then the 

 progeny of a dozen of the insects will perhaps be 

 found to rid a house of aphides more effectually and 

 more economically than all the tobacco-paper that 

 has ever been smoked. — F. H. Ward. 



