12 



FLASHLIGHTS ON NATURE 



jointed hairy legs, their delicate feelers, and their 

 marvellous honey-tubes ; and it will not be my fault 

 if you still continue to regard them as nothing more 

 than the " nasty blight " that destroys your roses. 



Do not for a moment 

 suppose, however, that 

 you and your gardener, 

 with his spray and his 

 tobacco- water, are the only 

 enemies the rose-aphis 

 possesses. The name of 

 her foes is legion. She is 

 devoured alive, from with- 

 out and from within, by a 

 ceaseless horde of aggres- 

 sive belligerents. The 

 most destructive of these 

 enemies are no doubt the 

 lady-birds, which, both 

 in their larval and their 

 winged forms, live almost 

 entirely on various kinds 

 of green-fly. This prac- 

 tical fact in natural history 

 is well known to hop- 

 growers, for the dreaded 

 " fly " on hops is an aphis ; 

 its abundance or otherwise governs the hop market, 

 and Kentish farmers are keenly aware that a certain 

 particular lady-bird eats the "fly" by millions, on 

 which account they protect and foster the lady-bird, 



NO. 5. UNNATURAL LODGER 

 EATS HIS HOSTESS OUT 

 OF HER SKIN. 



