ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



sa 



reach their perfect state. We can understand how it could pass in the May-fly to pre- 

 dacious insects, such as the spider and the ground-beetle, but not so readily how it 

 could find a second host in a a vegetable devourer, such as the locust or the caterpillar. 

 It may be that the encysted worm is cast off with the pseud-imago skin of the fly, 

 or that it survives the decay of the fly itself, and, being caught in the herbage, is 

 taken in by some hungry herbivorous insect. The chances against it, in this case, 

 seem to be very great. Still, when we remember the vast number of eggs laid by on© 

 female Gordius — they have been estimated at more than six millions and a half — we must 

 allow that there is a very broad margin for failures ; a,nd that if only a small percentage 

 of the brood arrives at perfection, there must be a very great number, indeed, of hair- 

 snakes that run the full length of days allotted to their kind. In the case of the 

 tape-worm, lauiia solium, we know that the ova survive the decomposition of the 

 ejected proglottides or divisions of the worm, and are swallowed by hogs and 

 sheep as they feed upon the vegetation. 



Another kind of creatures that affords us much food for reflection is the 



Aphides. 



One day in July of this year I found two patches of these ''plant-lice" on the 

 broad Windsor beans growing in my garden. My first impulse was to destroy the 

 intruding insects, but entomological curiosity overcame horticultui'al prudence, and I 

 made up ray mind to allow the insects to run their course. By the end of August 

 there was not a stalk in the double row of beans (which was 12 yards long) that was 

 not black with aphides. The insects clustered especially on the topmost leaves, and 

 among the flowers, and along the edges of the pods. The winged brood of the 

 species appeared in the middle of September. 



The number of familiars and foes that resorted to this colony of aphides was 

 truly amazing. First there were the ants busy about their " milch cows " — as the old 

 naturalists called them. It was amusing to see a cunning ant approach an aphis and 

 caress her daintily till she — either indignant at the liberties taken with her, or tickled to 

 death with the fun — ejected the precious drops that the ant was longing tor — for the love 

 of the ant for the Aphis is simply cupboard love. 



At least four kinds of lady-birds employed themselves in lessening the numbers of 

 the aphides : — The Thirteen spotted. Fig 33, (Jlippodamia tredecim-punctata Linn,) the 

 nine-spotted. Fig. 34, the beetle, fig. 35 larva, {Cocinella novem-notata, Kirby,) the five- 



Fig. 33. 



Fig. 34. 



Fig. 36. 



spotted, fig, 36, (much magnified,) (C. quinqice-notata, Kirby,) and '■he two-spotted, 

 (Adalia bipunctata, Linn.) The handsome larvpe of these species might be seen driving 

 their snouts into the ill-fated aphides, and after a while casting them off "flaccid and 

 drained." The coccinellid;v are among the gardener's most useful insect friends, but they 

 are not always duly appreciated. A gentleman saw a gardener busily employed in picking 

 off the Lady-birds from his plants and treading them under foot. " What are you doing 

 that for 1" he asked. "Well, sir," was the reply, "you see these nasty red things — 

 them's the old uns ; you see these little green things — them's the young uns just hatched. 

 I'm killing the old uns fust, and I'll tackle the young uns arterwards." 



