THE LACE-WING FLY 123 
minders, which not even soap and hot water will 
entirely obliterate from our finger-tips. But why 
should we have caught her? What an opportu- 
nity we threw away in her capture ! Why not, 
rather, have followed the gauzy sprite, and learned 
something of her ways, something of the mission 
she is performing as she flits from leaf to leaf? 
For this is no idle flight of the lace-wing fly as 
we see her in the summer meadow. Her golden 
eyes are on a sharp lookout for a certain quest, 
and we are fortunate if we chance to surprise her 
softly at the time of her discovery, and with 
breathless stillness encourage her in the fulfil- 
ment of her plans. Everywhere among the grass- 
es, weeds, and bushes we find the airy tokens of 
her visits; those delicate, hair-like fringes sur- 
rounding culm or twig, or growing like a tiny tuft 
of some webby mould upon the surface of leaf. 
But who even guesses the nature of the pretty 
fringe, or even associates with it the pale green 
golden-eyed fly which we all know so well ? 
Here beneath our close leaf is an opportunity 
which we must not permit to pass. Even as we 
take another cautious peep we discover that a 
cobwebby hair has grown from the surface of the 
leaf, with its tiny knob at the summit ; and now 
another is growing- beside it, following the pointed 
rising tip of the insect's slender tail. It has now 
reached a half -inch in length, when the little 
