ORCHARD LIFE. 



179 



aphids and place it in water or wet sand in a breed- 

 ing cage. Tie a wad of cotton about the branch so 

 that aphis-lions can not easily escape from it. 



2. Collect several aphis-lions and place them 

 among the aphids, and observe their habits. If the 

 aphids are destroyed before the aphis-lions get their 

 growth and spin cocoons, transfer the aphis-lions to 

 a new colony of aphids. 



3. When the aphis-lions have made cocoons, 

 transfer the cocoons to a wide-mouthed bottle cov- 

 ered with netting, and leave them there till the 

 adults emerge. The adult aphis-lion is called a lace- 

 winged-fly. 



4. Search for eggs of lace-winged-fiies. They 

 can be found on the leaves of trees and bushes, 

 attached by long, slender stalks, as shown in the 

 figure. 



5. Prepare a set of specimens illustrating the 

 transformations of lace-winged-flies or aphis-lions, 

 and label them as follows : — 



Order Neuroptera (Neu-rop'te-ra). 



Family Chrysopid^ (Chry-sop'i-dae). 



The Lace-winged- flies or Aphis-lions. 



The Lady-bugs {Field and School Work). — The 

 insects that are commonly called lady-bugs are small 

 beetles which are more or less nearly hemi- 

 spherical in form, and generally red or yellow 

 with black spots, or black, with white, red, 

 or yellow spots. Fig. 148 represents a com- 

 mon species. Lady-bugs, both in the adult 

 and larval states, feed on aphids, other small in- 

 sects, and the eggs of insects. The object of this 



1^ 



