368 THE WORLD OF ANIMAL LIFE 



The life-history of the glow-worm is rather a curious one. It 

 begins life, of course, as an egg ; and out of the egg comes a little 

 black grub, resembling, in everything but size, the mother beetle. 

 It is even luminous, in some degree, and people who have seen it 

 shining among the grass late in the autumn, or early in the spring, 

 have often mistaken it for a perfect glow-worm. 



This grub lives on most curious food, namely, snails. Almost as 

 soon as it hatches out of the egg, it sets off in search of these mol- 

 luscs. When it finds one, it burrows into the shell, and begins to 

 eat the flesh of its victim. And before very long it has killed and 

 devoured it, and is ready to seek for another. 



The grub of the glow-worm passes the winter in a state of 

 torpor, neither eating nor drinking. But as soon as the warm days 

 of spring come round it wakes up from its slumbers, and resumes 

 its long-interrupted meal. By about the middle of May it is fully 

 fed, and then, burrowing into the ground, it becomes a pupa, or 

 chrysalis. From this the perfect beetle emerges about six weeks 

 later. 



LADY-BIRDS (Family CocciNELLlD^) 



We have already seen how a small and harmless - looking 

 insect, such as the wire-worm, can do us a great deal of mischief 

 Now let us see how another small insect can do us a great deal 

 of good. 



Most of us know what a Lady-bird is. Everyone who lives in 

 the country must have seen it often, for it is very abundant, and 

 sometimes appears in such numbers that it seems to be every- 

 where. 



The lady-bird feeds upon the aphis, or " green-fly ", and follows 

 it wherever it goes. So, whenever a swarm of the troublesome 

 little blight insect appears, a swarm of lady-birds is almost sure 

 to follow before very long. 



Sometimes these lady-birds come even from across the sea. 

 Near the coast of Kent, for instance, hops are grown very largely, 

 and every now and then the aphis comes to the hop-gardens, 

 and begins its work of destruction. Before long, however, the 



