ORCHARD, GARDEN, AND FIELD INSECTS 125 



in size. The queen honeybee often lays as many as four 



thousand eggs in twenty-four hours. A single house fly 



lays between one hundred 



and two hundred eggs in one 



night. The mosquito lays 



eggs in quantities of from 



two hundred to four hundred. 



The white ant often lays 



eighty thousand in a day, and 



so continues for two years, 



probably laying no less than 



forty million eggs. The blue- 

 bottle fly in one summer has 



five hundred million descend- 

 ants. The plant louse at the 



end of the fifth brood in a 



single year has laid six trillion 



eggs, and that is not all of 



which she is capable. Of course every 

 one knows that owing to enemies and 

 disease comparatively few of the insects 

 hatched from these 

 eggs live to be 

 grown. 



k. 



EXERCISE 



FIG. 116. A BUTTERFLY PUPA 



Note outline of butterfly. (From Dick- 

 erson's "Moths and Butterflies," 

 Ginn & Company) 



FIG. 117 

 THE GROWTH 

 OF A GRASS- 

 HOPPER 



Collect cocoons and 

 pupae of insects and 

 hatch them in a breed- 

 ing cage similar to the 

 one illustrated in Fig. 119. Make several cages of this kind. Collect 

 larvae of several kinds ; supply them with food from plants upon 



