THE GOLDEN-EYE. 205 



insects are always more or less elongated^ usually 

 filiform, but sometimes clubbed_, and the tarsi are 

 composed either of four or five joints. 



Hovering in the rays of the setting sun, or in the 

 soft air of a summer^s evening, over the plants in our 

 gardens, hedge-rows, and woods, every one must have 

 observed a delicate insect, supported upon large wings, 

 which look like green gauze, and many of us must 

 also have been startled by the exceedingly disagree- 

 able odour which this graceful creatm^e evolves when 

 caught. Apart from this consideration, the insect in 

 question presents as delicate an appearance as almost 

 any inhabitant of the air ; its body, w hich measures 

 about half an inch in length, is of a soft texture and 

 ji of a pale green colour, and the filmy wings, traversed 

 by numerous delicate green veins, upon which it 

 executes its aerial dance, are of such a size as to seem 

 wholly out of proportion to the small slender body 

 which they are destined to support. The eyes, which 

 are of rather large size and nearly globular form, 

 have a beautiful golden lustre during the life of the 

 insect, but this unfortunately fades when the ento- 

 mologist preserves a specimen for his private con- 

 templation. 



This beautiful, but stinking fly is the Hemerobius 

 Perla, one of the most abundant examples of a large 

 tribe of interesting insects, called, from the name of 

 the typical genus, the Hemerobiina. They all agree 

 in having a slender body, with ample, reticulated, 

 roof-like wings; a rather wide head, not produced 

 beneath into a rostrum, with large compound eyes, 

 but without ocelli (except in one genus) ; and slender 

 tarsi composed of five joints, of which the fourth is 

 not dilated. 



