AN ARCADIAN CALENDAR 



A BREATH of Winter puts " Finis " to chapters in- 

 numerable of insect life, and in gardens 

 Ladybirds and lanes we miss their teeming multitudes, 

 and mourn for butterfly and bee. We may 

 shed no tear over the passing of the wasp. Daddy- 

 longlegs is an engaging creature, but we remember he 

 springs from the pestilential leather-jacket. Rosarians 

 and hop-growers, and all true lovers of roses and beer, 

 will regret the vanishing of the pretty and ever- welcome 

 ladybirds. Their life-work is mainly for the benefit of 

 roses and hops, as alike in larval and perfect state they 

 live on greenfly, mysteriously crossing the Channel to 

 find their prey : Dover's cliffs have been painted scarlet 

 by incoming swarms of these fairy-like beetles. 



142 



