APPLE LEAVES, APHIS LIONS — EGGS. 71 



brilliant golden appearance, which has obtained for them the 

 name of Golden-eyes. These- last are mostly of a bright pale 

 green color, and several of these, although they have such a 

 pretty appearance, emit a peculiar and very disagreeable odor, 

 which remains upon the fingers for some time after one of them 

 • has been handled. This odor appears to be given out constantly 

 by those species which possess it, and not merely when they are 

 disturbed, a^ is frequently stated; for in numerous instances I 

 have by it been aware of my nearness to one of these insects be- 

 fore I had seen it. 



These flies may be met with daily during the summer season, 

 generally in the vicinity of trees or other herbage infested with 

 plant-lice. Their eggs are placed in a very curious manner. 

 This work is done in the night time, so that no one has been able 

 to inspect one of these insects when engaged in this operation, 

 they being so timid as to flit away when approached with a light. 

 Still, the mode in which the fly proceeds in this work is sufiiciently 

 evident. Nature has furnished these insects with a fluid analogous 

 to that which spiders are provided for spinning their webs, which 

 possesses the remarkable property of hardening immediately on 

 being exposed to the air. When ready to drop an egg, the female 

 touches the end of her body to the surface of the leaf, and then 

 elevating her body, draws out a slender cobweb-like thread, half 

 an inch long, or less, and places a little oval egg at its summit. 

 Thus a small round spot resembling mildew is formed upon the 

 surface of the leaf, from the middle of which arises a very slen- 

 der glossy white thread, which is. sometimes split at its base, thas 

 giving it a more secure attachment than it would have if single. 

 The egg at its summit is of a pale green color when newly de- 

 posited, but before it hatches it becomes whitish, and shows tw© 

 or three faint dusky transver'se bands. The larva leaves it, com 

 monly I think in less than a week from the- time it is deposited, 

 through an opening which it gnaws in the summit, and the empty 

 ^hell remains supported on its stalk, somewhat shrivelled and of 

 a wh*ite color. And where several of these are placed together 

 in a group, they- bear a close resemblance to the fruit-bearing or- 

 gans of those mosses whose capsules are elevated upon capillary 



