SAMOUELLE s 



of the elder, for the origin of which he was extremely 

 puzzled to account The long footstalks of the eggs 

 of these insects, there can be little doubt, are meant 

 to place them out of the reach of the hosts of preda- 

 ceous insects which would roam around them, from 

 whose jaws, thus elevated on their slender shaft, they 

 are as safe as the eggs of the tailor-bird in its twig- 

 suspended nest from the attacks of snakes." 



As the insect generally deposits )t< eggs in the 

 autumn of the year, and the larvae are found in pro- 

 fusion from the spring to the summer months, it 

 is evident that the larvae leave the eggs previous 

 to the fall of the leaf and seek a place of refuge 

 during the winter ; we are further borne out in this 

 opinion by the Rev. \V. Kirby, who, in a note in the 

 second volume of his Introduction, says, " I have 

 reason to think that the larva of some species of 

 Hemerobim thus protect themselves by a net-like 

 case of silken threads ; at least I found one to-day, 

 (December 3rd, 1816 inclosed in a case of this 

 description concealed under the bark of a tree: and 

 it is not very likely that it could be a cocoon, both 

 because the inhabitant was not a pupa, which state, 

 according to Reaumur, is assumed soon after the 

 cocoon is fabricated ; and because the same author 

 describes the cocoons of these insects as perfectly 

 spherical and of a very close texture, while this 

 was oblong, and the net-work with rather wide 

 meshes. 



" As Hercules, alter he had slain the Nemean lion, 

 made a double! "!' il- skin, SO the lai\a of this 



inject covers itself with the skins of the luckless 



