APHIS-DESTROYERS. 181 



meal, not " toujours perdrix" but " toiy'ours puceron." Amongst 

 this devouring crew is the beautiful gold-eyed, lace-winged 

 Fly, which, while yet in its crawling minority, roams through 

 its appropriated leafy fold, making tremendous use of its 

 crooked and perforated tusks, first to slaughter, then to suck 

 in the sweet juices of its victims at the rate of two a minute. 

 Of less ferocious aspect, but not a whit less insatiate than the 

 above, is the green or parti-coloured Grub of a Bee-like Fly, 

 called a Syrphus, of which many varieties are common in 

 gardens, darting from flower to flower, or hovering hawk-like 

 over them. Applied closely to a leaf or stalk by their hinder 

 extremities, which are broad and flattish, the Grubs of these 

 Syrphi may, in June, be noticed by dozens, on the stretch for 

 the Aphis prey by which they are usually surrounded. In 

 this attitude they much resemble Leeches, and like leeches 

 are in greedy search of blood, the honeyed blood of their 

 victims. 



The above are the most rapacious of those comparatively 

 bulkly devourers, that (to the extensive benefit of vegetation 

 and of man) appropriate Aphis flocks by wholesale ; but the 

 Aphis individual (atom as he is) is by no means so insignifi- 

 cant as to escape individual attack. Even the Aphis is great 

 enough to have a parasite. One, a small black Ichneumon Fly, 

 pierces the little green body of the unconscious Sap-sucker, and 

 deposits therein a tiny egg, from which springs a tiny worm, 

 that feasts and grows to maturity within its living receptacle. 



