A FEW FRIENDS. 309 



feeds on the body of its host. These hisects therefore 

 do good in preying upon caterpillars which infest plants 

 generally in the garden. It may be taken as a general 

 ride that all insects which are seen hovering over plants 

 are either Ichneumon flies or Hawk flies, and friends of 

 the gardener worth taking care of. 



Lacewing: Fly (Chrysola perla).— Doubtless many 

 readers have noticed on their plants in the summer time 



A.^tSSSl 



[Photo: J. G. BiaKe^v. 

 THE LACE-WING FLY WITH LARY.E (CHRYSOPA PERLA). 



A pretty insect with gauzelike wings. The two lower ineects are the 

 larva?, one of which is shown in the act of eating an aphie. 



a number of very fine white hairs, with little knobs at the 

 end, and have come to the conclusion that they were some 

 minute form of fungus. Nothing of the kind. The little 

 filaments are simply appendages with an egg at the end. 

 In a short time the tiny knobs at the ends of the fila- 

 ments, or eggs, give birth to dirty-white, or pale-brown 

 coloured larvae, marked with brown or orange spots, and 

 with tufts of hair on each side of their body, like the 



