ARTHROPODA. 207 



hop season in Kent often depends on the arrival or 

 non-arrival of the Ladybirds. Anohium, one of the 

 Xylophaga, is familiar as the Death-watch of popular 

 superstition. The noise, which is exactly like the tick- 

 ing of a watch, is the call of the creature to its mate, 

 heard constantly in old houses in warm weather. 

 The larvae are exceedingly destructive to wood, in 

 which they bore holes. The beetle has been said to 

 receive its name from its habit of " shamming dead " 

 when caught, for it rolls over with its legs curled up ; 

 but many beetles do the same. More probably the 

 name is derived from the superstitions about the 

 insect. The Cockchafer {Melolontlia vulgaris) is the 

 adult of a larva very destructive to crops. It bur- 

 rows in the ground and eats roots, and takes three 

 years to attain maturity. 



The Hymenoptera include the Gall-wasps {Oynips), 

 the Ichneumon Wasps, and the true Ants, as well as 

 the Wasps and Bees. The Grall-insects puncture plant 

 tissues with their ovipositor (egg-placer), and inject 

 an acrid secretion, at the same time laying their 

 eggs ; the tissues swell up and produce a gall, in 

 which the larvee are sheltered till their maturity. The 

 commonest English kinds are the Gall-insect of the 

 oak and Gall-insect of the rose, producing respectively 

 what are known as " oak-apples," and the pretty 

 moss-like red and green galls often seen on wild rose- 

 bushes. The insects (Breeze-flies) which produce galls 

 on cattle are Diptera, as has already been stated. 



The Ichneumons lay their eggs in the bodies of 



