ENTOMOLOGICAL CABINKT. 



CHRXSOPA RETICULATA. Leach, 



Hemerobius Chrysops. Linn. 

 Reticulated Golden Eye. 



The wings of this interesting genus of insects are 

 transparent, and on the surface, in different positions, 

 reflect the most splendid play of colouring, in varied 

 and blended changes of blue, yellow, green and pink. 

 One species, the C. alba, is very common in May and 

 June in most gardens ; the economy of the insects of 

 this genus is curious and highly interesting. " The 

 eggs of these insects are oval, and each of them at- 

 tached to a filiform pedicle not thicker than a hair, 

 and seven or eight times as long as the egg. By this 

 pedicle (which is supposed to be formed by a glutinous 

 matter attached to one end, which the female draws 

 out by abstracting her ovipositor with the egg partly in 

 it from the leaf, to which she has previously applied 

 it, to a proper length, when the gluten becoming suffi- 

 ciently solid, she wholly quits the egg) the eggs are 

 planted, in groups of ten or twelve, on the surface of 

 leaves and twigs, from which they project like so 

 many small fungi, to some of which they have a re- 

 markable resemblance. (See the leaf beneath the 

 figure of the insect.) When the included larva has 

 made its way out of them, by forcing open the top, 

 they look like little vases, and were actually once 

 figured by a naturalist, as we learn from Reaumur, as 

 singular parasitic flowers, growing upon the leaves 

 2-1 4 



