280 INSECTS AT HOME. 



over the whole surface of the compound eye plays a brilliant 

 combination of colour. Every separate hexagon looks like a 

 framework of burnished gold, changing with the shifting light 

 into various ^lues of rich green and carmine. In fact, the 

 whole eye looks very much like a hemispherical brooch, entirely 

 covered with emeralds and rubies. 



It is rather hard on the insect to expose it to this strong 

 light, which is needed to bring out its beauties, for it is a lover 

 of darkness, and only comes out after sunset, when it may be 

 observed fluttering with apparently aimless flight in the air. 

 But it is impossible to see the full splendour of this magnifi- 

 cent object without exposing the insect to some inconvenience. 

 A dead specimen is useless, for the colour departs alike from 

 body and eye. As to the pale-green of the body, it is the most 

 fugitive colour that an insect can possess, while the more 

 gorgeous hues of the eye vanish soon after the life departs, and 

 very little is left of their once magnificent beauty. Would that 

 some method could be discovered of preserving the too fugitive 

 tints of this lovely insect. There is a specimen now before me 

 which has only been dead some forty-eight hours, and already 

 the tender green of its body is fading, and the fiery splendour 

 of its eyes is quenched. Lovely as is the insect to the eye, it 

 can offend another sense most grievously, for it possesses a 

 peculiarly evil odour, which attaches itself strongly to the 

 finger that crushes it, and cannot be removed without many 

 washings. 



The Lacewing-fly is allied to the Ant-lions, of which we have 

 no genuine representative in England. When in the larval 

 state it is very predaceous, as is betokened by its large and 

 curved mandibles. It feeds mostly on aphides, of which it 

 devoiu's vast numbers, draining them of their juices, and then 

 covering itself with the emptied bodies of its victims, so as to 

 render itself scarcely distinguishable from the lichens among 

 which it mostly lives. The neck of the larva is very flexible, 

 so that it can dart its head in any direction in order to seize 

 its prey. It can eat two large aphides in one minute, and is so 

 voracious that if two Lacewing larvae nieet each other they aj-e 

 sure to fight, and the conqueror is equally sure to eat the 

 vanquished combatant. These larvae are quick in their growth, 

 and do not require mujh more than a fortnight before they 



