80 INSECTS AFFECTING THE ORANGE. 



deposited siugly, lying upon its side, in any situation where the female 

 may find a lurking place.^ 



This little bug is one of a number of insects often associated with the 

 Orange Web-worm, Anceglis demissaUs. (See Chapter X.) 



INSECTS OF THE ORDER NEVBOPTERA. 



LACK-WINGS. 



Chrysopa. (Fig. 38, adult fly and eggs of Chrysopa ocidata.) — There 

 may frequently be seen, moving rapidly about upon tlie trunk and 



branches of the orange tree, little floc- 

 culent masses, grayish in color, nearly 

 hemispherical, and of about the size of 

 a split pea. When one of these mossy 

 FIG. ^%.-Chrysopa ocuiata. buuchcs is examined closely it is founil 



to be an insect, whose back is covered with a nondescript collection of 

 fragments, consisting chiefly of the dried skins and broken remains of 

 insects. This is the young of a Chrysoi)a, or Lace-wing fly, and the cov- 

 ering with which its soft body is jirotected, and which renders it less 

 conspicuous upon the bark, is formed from the accumulated remains of 

 the victims whose juices have served the animal for food. 



The Lace- wing feeds to a great extent upon Bark-lice, tearing loose 

 the scales from the bark, and after devouring the soft contents adding 

 a portion of the debris to the load upon its back. Plant lice and many 

 otlier small insects are also eaten. The activity and rapacity of the 

 larva is remarkable; it wanders restlessly over all ])arts of the tree in 

 search of food, and although insignificant as to numbers in comparison 

 with the swarming millions of its prey, it yet exercises an appreciable 

 influence in holding them in check. 



Larva. — The body of the larva, divested of its extianeous covering, is 

 somewhat broadly oval, divided into joints, from the >i(les of which arise 

 branching spines. These spines serve to hold in place the loose, dry 

 materials which are piled upon its back. The legs are quite long and 

 slender, adapted to rapid movements, and the jaws are sickle-shaped, 

 long and keenly pointed, projecting beyond the ambuscade under which 

 the insect moves. 



Pupa. — When prepared to pupate, the larva forms an almost globular 

 cocoon by drav.ii)g together with strands of silk the loose materials it 

 bears u])on its back, and constructing beneath it a spherical cell of thin 

 but strong parchment, pure white in color. Within this the pupa lies 

 curved like an embryo. The pupa has the form of the perfect insect, 

 barely masked by a transparent envelope, and with the wings and other 

 members contracted and closely applied to the body. It gradually 

 changes in color from white to pale green, and linally issues by pushing- 

 outward a circular cap which forms one end of its cell. 



Imago. — The perfect insect is a four-winged fly, of a delicatepeagreeu 

 color; eyes a resplendent copper bronze. The wings are large, closely 

 veined, hyaline with a violet reflection ; when at rest they meet in a 



