118 Lli^E STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 



delicate gauze-like wings, while most of them are 

 very small, and many microscopical, those of the 

 group with extended tails reaching i of an inch in 

 length being the giants. In summer the bush, 

 garden, orchard, and field swarms with countless 

 thousands of the smaller forms of these parasites; 

 nothing is too small for them to infest. One group 

 lays its eggs in the eggs of spiders. Others 

 insert their ovipositor through the protective cov- 

 ering of the mantis eggs, and discharge their eggs 

 therein. Another black ant-like wasp infests the 

 eggs of grasshoppers, and several curious species 

 can be obtained from the pupae of our large bull- 

 dog ants. 



To the farmer, however, the most interesting 

 are those which destroy the small moth caterpillars 

 of which there are many. The best known are the 

 chalcid wasps, short, thick-set, hard, shining, black 

 and yellow wasps, which have the thighs of the 

 hind legs so thickened that, drawn down on either 

 side of the abdomen, they are often quite as large 

 as the short oval body. All the members of this 

 group are parasitic on the larvae of small moths. 

 One attacks the codlin moth, and is known as the 

 "jumping fly" because it has the power of springing 

 up by contracting the swollen thighs. If any one 

 wishes to observe these little friendly insects he 

 has only to collect a bunch of galls of a gum tree, 

 some insect eggs and cocoon, and place them in a 

 closed jar, where in a few weeks he will see these 

 little creatures crawling over the surface of the i 

 ^lass trying to escape. 



