1464 THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSE 



Polynema (Cosmocoma) destroys the eggs of the cab- 

 bage butterfly. I read this twenty-five years ago, but 

 I have never yet found one egg "struck." Stenops- 

 cocus lays its eggs on the leaves of various shrubs 

 and trees. I have found them on lime, oak, syca- 

 more, hawthorn, and ivy. They are laid in patches 

 of ten to twenty, the female psocid carefully weav- 

 ing a silken covering in an endeavor to protect 

 them from the attacks of enemies; but, alas! who 

 would imagine a fairy fly to be an enemy? Yet its 

 microscopic size enables it to pass unnoticed, and 

 also permits its passing beneath the silken screen, 

 and, once there, woe betide the psocid's eggs! for 

 the busy fairy taps one with her clubbed antenna, 

 mounts to the summit, and then lets down the ovi- 

 positor until the barbed tip touches the surface of 

 the fresh-laid egg (it must be fresh). Now by care- 

 fully focusing a good magnifier, we can observe 

 the fairy taking a firm hold of the surface of the 

 egg with the two curved tips of each of her ex- 

 quisitely formed toes! Next we note that pressure 

 is being put upon the barbed ovipositor. The an- 

 tenna? are pressed firmly to the surface, and impress 

 the observer with the fact that some very serious 

 business is in hand. Eleven minutes have passed 

 without any sign of a move, when just after eleven 

 and a quarter the ovipositor positively bumps 

 through the shell. There is another serious pause, 

 and then up go the clubbed antennae, and very care- 

 fully the ovipositor is withdrawn until it slips back 

 between the sheaths. The fairy turns round, and 

 with saliva from her mouth seals up the incision. 



