80 



THE LIFE OF AN INSECT. 



and, perhaps, the very fact of their being few in 

 number contributes to make them the more inter- 

 esting to us, We have seen a noble instance of 

 self-devotion on the part of a poor spider in defence 

 of her eggs. Let us now turn to some examples 

 of the love of an insect mother for her young 

 larva. If the reader will carefully search the 

 twigs and leaves of the birch-tree in the month of 

 July he may possibly succeed in finding the little 

 insect, the field-bug, of which mention is about 

 being made, and witness for himself the strange 

 spectacle described in the following account from 

 the great work on insects by De Greer. In order 

 that it may be recognised, we have 

 here adjoined a representation of 

 the insect. Its colour is a greenish 

 gray on the back, dotted all over 

 with very minute black spots; the 

 under portion of the insect is 

 greenish yellow, with black spots. 

 It lives upon the sap of the birch- 



The Field-bug. trCC 



" The mother," says De Geer, " was accompa- 

 nied by a troop of little ones, sometimes as many 

 as forty in number. She remained constantly 



