G16 INSECTS AT HOME. 



paraffin was not very agreeable to my own nostrils, but of the 

 two evils it was infinitely tlie lesser, and I was only too glad to 

 accept it. 



On the frontispiece, Fig. 9, is a coloured portrait of the 

 Humble-bee Fly {Bovihylius medius), as it appears while on 

 the wing. 



This insect is an example of the Bombylidae, a fiimily in 

 which the body is short and thick, with the wings extended 

 horizontally on either side of the body. The proboscis is very 

 long, and tlie tliorax very convex. All the Bombylidae fly 

 with wonderful rapidity, and in many of their habits resemble 

 the Humming-Bird Moth, which has already been described. 

 Like that insect, the fly has a way of suddenly appearing as if 

 by magic, and then disappearing as, rapidly, its darting flight 

 being as invisible as the track of a bullet through tlie air. 

 Like the Humming-bird Moth, it feeds while on the wing, 

 balancing itself at some little distance from a flower, plunging 

 the end of its long proboscis into the nectary, and sucking out 

 the sweet juices. 



A warm spring day is the time in which the Humble-bee Fly 

 may generally be seen. I have taken many of them in Bagley 

 Wood, and found no great difficulty in catching them when 

 their ways were learnt. It is useless to run after one of these 

 insects, as the least movement will terrify it, and send it off far 

 beyond the reach of the net. Whenever I wanted to eatch a 

 Bombylius, I used to look out for a patch of primroses on 

 which the sun was shining, and to wait there with the net 

 placed close to the flowers in readiness for a stroke. After 

 waiting some little time, and taking care not to make the 

 slightest movement, a Bombylius was nearly sure to come to 

 the flowers, and hover first over one and then over another as if 

 to ascertain which blossom contained the most honey. Having 

 at last fixed upon a flower, it would plunge its proboscis into it, 

 and then a quick stroke of the net would secui'e it before it had 

 time to dart away. 



Passing l)y a considerable number of Flies, we come to the 

 family Asilidre. In tliis family, the body is long and the 

 thorax narrowed in front. The wings have some perfect cells, 



