PLANTS AND ANIMALS IN WINTER. 327 



The handsome and beneficial lady beetles winter 

 beneath fallen leaves or between and beneath the root 

 leaves of the mullein and the thistle. Our most com- 

 mon species, the thirteen-spotted lady beetle, Megilla 

 maculata DeG., is gregarious, col- 

 lecting together by thousands on 

 the approach of cold weather, and 

 lying huddled up like sheep until 

 a breath of spring gives them the Fig.98-Thirteen-spot- 



, . , ted Lady Beetle. 



signal to disperse. Snout beetles 

 galore can be found beneath piles of weeds near 

 streams and the borders of ponds or beneath chunks 

 and logs in sandy places. All are injurious, and the 

 farmer by burning their hibernating places in winter 

 can cause their destruction in numbers. Rove beetles, 

 ground beetles, and many others live deep down in 

 the vegetable mold beneath old logs, where they are, 

 no doubt, as secure from the breath of'the ice king as 

 if they had followed the swallow to the tropics. 



Of the JMptera, or Hies, but few forms winter in the 

 perfect state, yet the myriads of house flies and their 

 kin, which next summer will distract the busy house- 

 wife, are represented in winter bv a 

 Flies and Gnats ,. . , , , . v . , , , . . 



, .... . lew isolated individuals which creep 



in Winter. 



forth occasionally from crevice or 

 cranny and greet us with a friendly buzz. 



In mid-winter one may also see in the air swarms 

 of small, gnat-like insects. They belong to this order 

 and live beneath the bark of freshly fallen beech and 

 other logs. On warm, sunny days they go forth in 

 numbers for a sort of rhythmical courtship; their 

 movements while in the air being peculiar in that 



