11 INSECT PESTS OF FARM, GARDEN AND ORCHARD 



is firmly clasped by the small booklets until the juices are sucked 

 from its body. In this manner very large numbers are destroyed, 

 a single maggot of the American Syrphus-fly (Syrphus americanus) 

 having been observed to eat twenty-five apple plant-lice (Aphis 

 pomi) in as many minutes. When the larva is ready to pupate 

 it attaches itself to a leaf, and the larval skin dries up and forms 

 a case or puparium inside of which the pupa remains until it 

 transforms to the adult fly. 



Though most of these Iarva3 feed upon plant-lice upon the 

 leaves, one of them, the Root-louse Syrphus-fly (Pipiza radicans), 

 lives entirely underground during that stage, and feeds upon- 



FIG. 7. The root-louse syrphus-fly (Pipiza radicans}. a, maggot; b, 

 puparium; c, fly. (After Riley.) 



the root-lice of the apple and the grape. None of this family 

 are injurious, and as a large portion of them are so beneficial 

 as to frequently destroy whole broods of plant-lice, they should 

 not be disturbed in their good work if possible to avoid it. 



The Ground-beetles 



If, as you scrape away the loose chips at the base of a tree 

 in your door-yard, turn over an old log in the woodland, or pick 

 up a fallen fence-rail, you will scrutinize the inhabitants under 

 these shelters, a number of shining black beetles varying in length 

 from one-fourth to 1 inches will usually be noticed. If the city 

 reader be not so fortunate as to be familiar with or have access 

 to these hiding-places, he may find large numbers of the beetles 

 under any electric arc light during the warm summer evenings; 

 for there they are having a sumptuous banquet upon the small 



