278 LACE- WINGED FLY. 



of " Scorpion-fly " to its great resemblance outwardly to the 

 deadly sting of the scorpion of tropic climates. 



From May to November these pretty flies are everywhere 

 common upon hedges and in gardens, where, with predacious 

 activity they make cruel sport under the summer sun, cooling 

 down, with advance of autumn, into a milder state of com- 

 parative inactivity, which renders them an easy prey alike to 

 bird and entomologist. 



Last, in our trio of "the fair and fierce, "* but for either 

 attribute not least, comes the beautiful green and golden-eyed 

 lace-winged day-fly* like the daisy (day's eye) loving sunny 

 weather, and the most elegant perhaps of all insects upon which 

 the sun (in Britain) ever shines wanting only augmented 

 bulk to render it an object of universal admiration. 



The form of the " lace- wing " is always graceful whether 

 at rest, with her ample folded wings, arching and sweeping, 

 train-like, over her slender limbs and body or whether by 

 expansion of these her gauzy pinions, she displays to more 

 advantage their most delicate workmanship a net of nervures, 

 interlaced over a thin transparent tissue, beautifully iridescent 

 with varying hues of azure-blue and rose colour. But above 

 all may this insect beauty, if she ever takes flattering counsel 

 at a dew-drop mirror, pride herself on the peculiar lustre of 

 her eyes a metallic brilliance closely resembling that of bur- 

 nished gold. There lurks, however, under these glittering 

 orbs, as much deception (though of a much more harmless 



* Hemerdbvus (Vignette.) 



