160 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Fig. 35. 



ing a close resemblance to each other, but all of the most useful 

 character to the agriculturist, feeding as they do almost exclu- 

 sively on the Aphides, or plant-lice.* The antennae are longer 

 than the body, and slender, of the shape called setiform or 

 bristle-like ; the wings hyaline with green or greenish yellow- 

 veins ; the head, thorax, abdomen and legs, usually of a clear 

 pea-green, and the projecting eyes often of a gold or shining 

 metallic lustre. They vary but little in size, averaging about 

 an inch and a quarter in expanse of wing, and scarcely half an 

 inch in length of the body. Their eggs, (figure 35, female 



lace-wing and eggs,) are laid 

 on twigs or leaves where the 

 Aphides are abundant, and to 

 prevent their being covered with 

 the exudations of the Aphides and suffocated, or devoured by 

 small predaceous insects, are fastened at the top of a small 

 pedicle or stalk, spun from the abdomen of the parent, like the 

 tliread of a spider. The young hatched from these are of an 

 elongated form, with sharp sickle-like jaws, with which they 

 pierce the tender bodies of the Aphides and suck their juices ; 

 they are very voracious and destroy a vast number of these 

 pests of the horticulturist during their larva-life ; after arriving 

 at their full size in this stage, they retire to some sheltered 

 place and spin a whitish cocoon, almost perfectly round, and 

 about the size of BB shot ; these may often be noticed in the 

 crevices of bark, under the upper rails of fences, and other 

 similar localities. 



Of the genus Myrmeleon, or ant-lion, we have in New Eng- 

 land but one well known species, although many others are 

 known to exist in the southern and western States. 



The Myrmeleon obsoletus 

 of Say, or obsolete ant- 

 lion (figure 36, Ilarr.,) is 

 of common occurrence 

 throughout the country. 

 The specimen from wjiich 

 Fig. 36. the figure was copied is iu 



* See the interesting accounts and descriptions of some of the species, in 

 Dr. Asa Fitch's First Report on the Insects of New York, publislied in the 

 Transactions of the Mow York State Agricultural Society for 185li. 



