VVP£ OF LADV-BrRD. iibO 



flies make reprisals upon them for their destruction of 

 the helpless aphides. Swaminerdum observed eight 

 of these parasites issue from one pupa of a Sijrplius* 



The lady-birds (^CoccindliiUe) glue their pupae to 

 leaves in much the same manner with the flies just 

 mentioned: but their skin, instead of becoming smooth, 

 wrinkles up by the shortening of the body of the 

 grub; because it is not so soft and plia!)le, and 

 cannot, therelbre, be compressed. The interior, how- 

 ever, is smooth. y 



Those insects which live during their first stages 

 in tlie water, exhibit a very different economy when 

 they change from larvie into nymphs, as may be 

 exemplitied in the jNIay-flies [EpInincridcK) and the 

 dragon-flies [Libellulina). But as these will require 

 to be described in a future page, we shall content our- 

 selves at present with an account of an interesting 

 but minute species of tipulidan gnat {Contlira plu- 

 micornis, JMeiuex), of a straw colour, whose history 

 was . first given by R aumur and De Gccr. The 

 latter was induced, from the beautiful transparency 

 of the larva, to name it Tipula cristallina, — a qua- 

 lity which renders it, its size being also very minute, 

 rather difficult to discover: it is however, a good 

 subject for microsco[)ical observations. Taking ad- 

 vantage of the recent improvements in microscopes, 

 Dr Goring has accordingly given coloured figures 

 both of the larva and pupa, as observed by him, in 

 which he has added a lew minute detailsj that are 

 not in the otherwise very accurate figures of R^ au- 

 mur. 



The larva is rather less than a quarter of an inch 

 long, and somewhat rcscmbli s in Ibnn those of the 

 same family, particularly in the parts about the liead, 



» Part ii, p. 99. + J. R. 



i Goring and Prilchard's Nat. Hist., No. 1 ; and Reaumur, 

 vol. v., luera 1. 



