6 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



assistance and advice as the Entomologist and other 

 experts of the Department can supply, ought to be the 

 means of lightening the labours of those, all honour to 

 them, who have spared neither expense nor trouble, com- 

 bined with a practical outcome of enthusiasm, to keep 

 their orchards clean and to present the fruits or other 

 products in a proper marketable condition to the public, 

 and, of course, with increased profit to the growers them- 

 selves. In America a motion has been carried by a very 

 learned, practical, and influential society, that the man 

 who has an orchard, farm, or vineyard, and cleaneth it 

 not, be voted a public nuisance. It is to be hoped that this 

 stigma will not be long allowed to apply to any grower in 

 Victoria; still many of the smaller holdings are at present 

 simply " breeding nurseries " for pests all and sundry. 



On our plate are added figures of the common Lady- 

 bird, Leis conformis (see Fig. 6), magnified Fig. 6 A 

 representing the perfect insect in its natural size, and also 

 on the wing ; whilst in Fig. 7 the pupa, enlarged, is 

 given ; and in Fig. 8 the curious larva, which is such a 

 terrible enemy to aphides and many other small pests, is 

 also shown. In making a careful examination of a group 

 of aphides with a lens, there may be often noticed a 

 number of the insects which are dead, with the contents 

 of their bodies, which have been hollowed or rather sucked 

 out by the larvae of certain parasites, amongst which are 

 those of the HemerMdce, or "Lace-wings" (see Figs. 

 5 and 9) ; also by minute Hymen opterous insects, four- 

 winged flies, which deposit their eggs in the body of the 

 aphides, which they pierce by means of their fine hair-like 

 ovipositors. The natural size of this little insect is given 

 in Fig. 10, the enlargement being shown in Fig. 10A. 



There are other insects which attack Aphidce, the 

 larvae of some of the Syrphidce, a two-winged fly, 

 supporting itself erect by its hinder parts, and, whilst in 

 this position, it seizes upon any unfortunate aphis which 

 comes within its reach and devours it at once. This 

 singular habit on the part of a larva is shown on Plate 

 XXXV., Fig. 13, Cabbage Aphis. 



