THE GOLDEN-EYED LACE-WINGED FLIES 



(Family Chrysopidce.) 



These little insects are known as the golden-eyed lace-winged 

 flies. They are generally green in color, and their eyes, while 

 appearing brown in some lights, have a distinct yellowish, almost 

 phosphorescent or metallic glint in other lights, which accounts 

 for the name golden-eyed. They are sometimes appropriately 

 called stink flies. The uncautious observer, attracted by 

 their beauty, on handling them is at once conscious of a dis- 

 agreeable and very strong odor which is with difficulty removed 

 from the fingers by soap and water. 



The eggs of these little flies are very curious. Each is placed 

 at the extremity of a long slender stalk, which is a most necessary 

 method of egg-placing, on account of the voracity and omnivorous 



habits of the newly 

 hatched larvae. If they 

 were laid on the sur- 

 face of a leaf side by 

 side, as is the case 

 with so many other 

 insects, the first larva 

 which hatched would 

 eat up all of the other eggs, but, issuing as it does from the egg 

 on the top of this long inedible stalk, finding himself on the leaf 

 there is nothing for him to eat unless he searches for plant-lice, of 

 which there is generally an abundance nearby. The eggs are usu- 

 ally deposited on leaves or twigs, and, with wise foresight, cus- 

 tomarily in the middle of a colony of plant-lice, and the young larvae 

 after hatching begin immediately to feed upon the nearest prey. 

 They are most voracious, and insert their long, pointed, sickle- 

 shaped jaws (like those of the Hemerobiids) into the body of the 

 nearest soft-bodied insect. It should be stated first, however, that 

 on hatching, the upper end of the egg is cut off by the larval jaws. 



Fig. 119. Chrysopa plorabunda. 

 (After Riley.) 



