338 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



large swarms of the common species a few bath whites come across the Channel. 

 It is scarcely to be supposed that they come of their own volition, for their flying 

 powers are weak, and more probably they are blown across the narrow Straits 

 The distinguishing feature of the bath white when viewed at close quarters is that 

 the black on the upper side is stronger and more abundant, but broken up so that 

 the tip of the fore-wing in both sexes and the hind- wing of the female have a chequered 

 pattern. On the under side the yellow scaling of the hind-wing is not continuous 

 as in the other species, but is broken up and alternated with white spaces, so that 

 we have chequers again. The black-spotted yellow and grey caterpillar feeds upon 

 mignonette, wild and cultivated ; but it has never been found at large in this country, 

 though it is known that the immigrant females deposit their eggs, for these have 

 been obtained and the Insect reared through all its stages from them. 



r Lady-Birds, 



If we relied upon popular classification for 

 a right view of the nature of things, we should 

 be going astray constantly. The popular notion 

 of a beetle, for example, is an Insect that is at 

 least objectionable, and in most cases repulsive. 

 There are many beetles that a.re as beautiful and 

 brilliant as gems, but in these cases the public 

 ignores their beetle-nature, and calls them some- 

 thing else. Although the lady-birds ^ do not quite 

 come into the latter category, they are admittedly 

 pretty, and no one objects to their alighting upon 

 hand or clothes. The children have even a 

 doggerel formula for bidding them to spread the 

 delicate brown wings that are packed so cleverly 

 under the gloss}^ red wing-covers, and to fly to 

 a home that does not exist. But they are never 

 acknowledged to be beetles — they are our lady's birds. So they do not 

 cause alarm to the average woman, and even the average gardener has 

 learned to restrain his natural desire to stamp them out. But with 

 the lady-bird in the grub stage, it is a very different matter. Few persons 

 have any notion that it is a phase of lady-bird development, and that it is the 

 stage in which this Insect's important life-work is mainly carried out. We have 

 actually been told by rose-growers who would pass for men of intelligence, that 

 their choicest rose-trees were being eaten up by a " blight " of which they submitted 

 sample specimens for identification ; such samples proved to be the grub of the 

 lady-bird. Sometimes it has happened that a zealous upholder of law and order, 

 whilst engaged in stalking a burglar or other evildoer, has himself been arrested 

 by the police under the impression that he is the actual criminal. So it is with 

 beneficent Insects. Seen in the company of notorious destroyers such as green-fly, 

 the gardener jumps to the conclusion that they are aiding and abetting these pests 

 in their nefarious work. 



Pholo by] 



A Lady-Bird. 



[£. Step, F.L.S. 



The beetle shown is the seven-spotted lady-bird, 

 one of the two most common species ; the other 

 being the two-spotted, with a single black spot 

 upon each red wing-cover. Here the same type of 

 colouring is found, but with the spots more 

 numerous. The photograph is four times the size 

 of the beetle. 



^ Coccir.ella. 



