8o ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [March, 



Or, as in Yorkshire and Lancashire, 



Lady-bird, lady-bird, eigh thy way home; 

 Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam, 

 Except little Nan, who sits in her pan, 

 Weaving gold laces as fast as she can. 



Or, as most commonly with us in America, 



Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home, 



Your house is on fire, and your children all burn. 



The meaning of this familiar, though very curious couplet, 

 seems to be this : the larvae, or young, of the Lady-bird feed 

 principally upon the Aphides, or plant-lice, of the vines of the 

 hop; and fire is the usual means employed in destroying the 

 Aphides; so that in killing the latter, the former, which had come 

 for the same purpose, are likewise destroyed. Cowan' s Curious 

 Facts. 



I RECEIVED the February number of the NEWS last evening and noticed 

 the article on the Red Bug by Mrs. A. T. Slosson, and also the article in 

 the previous number by Dr. Hamilton. 



Thinking that you might not take a quotation on the subject amiss, I 

 will enclose one from White's "Natural History of Selborne," which I 

 happen to be reading. 



From White's letter to Thomas Pennant dated March 30, 1771 : "There 

 is an insect with us, especially on chalky districts, which is very trouble- 

 some and teasing all the latter end of the summer, getting into people's 

 skins, especially those of women and children, and raising tumours which 

 itch intolerably. 



"This animal (which we call harvest bug) is very minute, scarce dis- 

 cernible to the naked eye; of a bright scarlet color, and of the genus of 

 Acarus.* 



" They are to be met with in garden on kidney beans, or any legumens, 

 but prevail only in the hot months of summer. 



" Warreners, as some have assured me, are much infested by them on 

 chalky-downs, where these insects sometimes swarm to so infinite a de- 

 gree as to discolour their nets, and to give them a reddish cast, while the 

 men are so bitten as to be thrown into fevers."- I. FOSTER MOORE, JR., 

 Bridgeport, Conn. 



* " Leptus autumnalis of Latreille." 



