APPLE LEAVES, APHIS LIONS EGGS. 71 



brilliant golden appearance, which has obtained for them the 

 name of Golden-eyes. These last are mostly of a bright pale 

 green color, and several of these, although they have such a 

 pretty appearance, emit a peculiar and very disagreeable odor, 

 which remains upon the fiugers for some time after one of them 

 has been handled. This odor appears to be given out constantly 

 by those species which possess it, and not merely when they are 

 disturbed, as is frequently stated; for in numerous instances I 

 have by it been aware of my nearness to one of these insects be- 

 fore I had seen it. 



These flies may be met with daily during the summer season, 

 generally in the vicinity of trees or other herbage infested with 

 plant-lice. Their eggs are placed in a very curious manner. 

 This work is done in the night time, so that no one has been able 

 to inspect one of these insects when engaged in this operation, 

 they being so timid as to flit away when approached with a light. 

 Still, the mode in which the fly proceeds in this work is sufficiently 

 evident. Nature has furnished these insects with a fluid analogous 

 to that which spiders are provided for spinning their webs, which 

 possesses the remarkable property of hardening immediately on 

 being exposed to the air. When ready to drop an egg, the female 

 touches the end of her body to the surface of the leaf, and then 

 elevating her body, draws out a slender cobweb-like thread, half 

 an inch long, or less, and places a little oval egg at its summit. 

 Thus a small round spot resembling mildew is formed upon the 

 surface of the leaf, from the middle of which arises a very slen- 

 der glossy wMte thread, which is sometimes split at its base, thus 

 giving it a more secure attachment than it would have if single. 

 The egg, at its summit, is of a pale green color, when newly de- 

 posited, but before it hatches it becomes whitish, and shows two 

 or three faint dusky transverse bands. The larva leaves it, com- 

 monly I think in less than a week from the time it is deposited, 

 through an opening which it gnaws in the summit, and the empty 

 shell remains supported on its stalk, somewhat shrivelled and of 

 a white color. And where several of these are placed together 

 in a group, they bear a close resemblance to the fruit-bearing or- 

 gans of those mosses whose capsules are elevated upon capillary 



