THE LACE-WING FLY 123 



minders, which not even soap and hot water will 

 entirely obliterate from our finger-tips. But why 

 should we have caught her? What an opportu- 

 nity we threw away in her capture ! Why not, 

 rather, have followed the gauzy sprite, and learned 

 something of her ways, something of the mission 

 she is performing as she flits from leaf to leaf? 

 For this is no idle flight of the lace-wing fly as 

 we see her in the summer meadow. Her golden 

 eyes are on a sharp lookout for a certain quest, 

 and we are fortunate if we chance to surprise her 

 softly at the time of her discovery, and with 

 breathless stillness encourage her in the fulfil- 

 ment of her plans. Everywhere among the grass- 

 es, weeds, and bushes we find the airy tokens of 

 her visits; those delicate, hair -like fringes sur- 

 rounding culm or twig, or growing like a tiny tuft 

 of some webby mould upon the surface of leaf. 

 But who even guesses the nature of the pretty 

 fringe, or even associates with it the pale green 

 golden-eyed fly which we all know so well ? 



Here beneath our close leaf is an opportunity 

 which we must not permit to pass. Even as we 

 take another cautious peep we discover that a 

 cobwebby hair has grown from the surface of the 

 leaf, with its tiny knob at the summit ; and now 

 another is growing beside it, following the pointed 

 rising tip of the insect's slender tail. It has now 

 reached a half - inch in length, when the little 



