CH. X.] THE HEMEROBIUS. 187 



the least objection to this substitute for its natural 

 food. 



Reaumur shut up twenty of these ravenous crea- 

 tures in a box, and supplied them with aphides for 

 food ; they were reduced in a few days to three or 

 four, these having eaten the rest. 



They spin a cocoon which is globular, and not 

 bigger than a pea, and yet the full-grown insect 

 conies out with a pair of such ample wings, that it 

 is a matter of astonishment how these, together wi Ih 

 the insect, could be packed up in so small a ca&e. 

 These wings are so fine that the solar rays are 

 broken upon them as on a prism ; indeed, the whole 

 form of the insect, with its large lustrous eyes, gos- 

 samer wings, the tender shining and golden green 

 of its body, is strikingly beautiful. 



The eggs which it lays are remarkable, inasmuch 

 as they present the appearance of parasitical plants, 

 growing from the leaf to which they are attached ; 

 the stalks are about an inch in length, white and 

 transparent. The mode in which they are attached 

 to the extremities of these hairs is thus explained 

 by Reaumur. 



The egg is enveloped in a viscous matter fit for 

 forming silk. Being in part protruded, the insect 

 applies the end of the egg bedewed with this sub- 

 stance to the leaf, and a portion of the glutinous 

 stuff thus adheres to it. It then withdraws its ab- 

 domen, and by doing so, the viscid drop is length- 



