FAIEY FLIES 



123 



can be examined. Furthermore, there are the results of the activity 

 of parasitic fungi as evidenced by "witches' brooms" and so on. 



FAIRY FLIES 



There is one family of insects of very great beauty and interest, 

 but of exceedingly small size, which need the microscope for ex- 

 amination, though they can just be distinguished with the naked eye. 

 Their larva passes its life, it is believed, in the eggs of larger insects, 

 and the adults have hitherto been found on window panes, the 

 transparency of which enables the tiny bodies of the insects to be 

 distinguished. The only apparatus required for collecting these 

 creatures, which appear in the 

 summer, is a small tube of 

 spirit and a paint-brush. 



These insects would well re- 

 pay attention, though it would 

 be difficult to work out their 

 life histories without a great 

 deal of experimenting in the 

 hope of discovering the par- 

 ticular insect eggs in which 

 each kind of fairy fly passes 



its early 



stages. 



There are 



From a drawin 



Frederick Enoch, F.L.S., F.E.S. 

 FIGURE 233. A Fairy Fly. 



very few workers at the sub- 

 ject ; Mr Frederick Enoch, the 

 well-known naturalist, is one, and Mr J. W. Gooch of Windsor is 

 another who has discovered new species, but few if any others have 

 turned their attention to the matter. 



