HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



177 



blowing towards you so much the better. Very 

 well, you look sharp — but you see nothing ! Look 

 sharper still — and you see a tiny entity as small 

 as any dot I could make on this paper with the 

 pen I am holding ; — and "it moves,'" as Galileo once 

 said of something rather larger, and it may be more 

 important. Xow hold the wide mouth of your 

 phial about half an inch below him, moisten your 

 bristle with your turpentine or oil, and lightly touch 

 the little creature. If he adhere to the point, at 

 once immerse him : but he may possibly elude your 

 touch and spring backwards into your bottle : or, 

 thirdly, he may justify his claim to the name of 

 "Fairy-fly" by playing you the old fairy-like trick 

 of vanishing altogether "into thin air " or, at any 

 rate, in some direction where you are little likely 

 to find him again. But we will suppose you have 

 secured your prize, or, by good luck, half-a-dozen 

 prizes as good as he. You can examine them at 

 once ; or better still, after a mere lookat the pretty 

 creatures with a platyscopic or Coddington lens (the 

 former is preferable on account of its longer focus), 

 leave them in the fluid for three or four days, .when 

 they will have become more transparent ; pour them 

 out into an old-fashioned watch-glass with a flattened 

 bottom placed on a sheet of white paper, and fish 

 them out one by one for microscopical examination 

 — using a two-inch, one-inch, and half-inch objec- 

 tive, and a spot lens, if you have one. Now that 

 you can see your fly, we will set about describing 

 him. As to his family history, it is of the shady 

 description. He is a true parasite of the Hymenop- 

 terous group (flies with four wings, two on each side, 

 which are united in flight), having sprung from an 



egg which his mother had deposited inside the egg 

 of a totally different insect — a butterfly perhaps : a 

 decided liberty to take, surely ! However, he 

 emerged in the handsome figure you see him, with- 

 out any transitions through the grub and pupa 

 stage. Here he is then : Order, Hymenoftera. 

 Family, Mymurida. Genus, Anaphes — though what 

 this word may mean, or what may be the meaning 

 of many other bad words which I shall indulge in 

 by-and-by, please don't ask me. The nearest I 

 can get to Mymar is a Greek word meaning "some- 

 thing to eat," but as many millions of Mymars would 

 make but a small mouthful, it can hardly be that. 

 His head is slightly broader than his thorax, and 

 furnished with two antenna;, each of thirteen pieces 

 (the females have fewer joints) ; two large com- 

 pound eyes ; three simple eyes placed in a triangle 

 at the back of the head, and a horizontal band 

 running between the compound eyes and above 

 the origin of the antennae. 



The thorax gives attachment to the six legs, the 

 tarsi or ankles of which are four-jointed, and to the 

 beautiful wings without veins or nervures. The 

 anterior wings are larger than the posterior, and 

 all are studded with minute hairs, and have much 

 longer hairs on their margins, which are sometimes 

 beautifully iridescent. The hooklets for uniting the 

 wings in flight, and which show so prettily in some 

 of the Hymenoptera (the Bee and Wasp* for ex- 



* In these insects the margin of the anterior wing is folded 

 so as to form a trough in which the strong hooklets on the 

 posterior wing are received, and glide in flight. Were they 

 received into holes, laceration would occur, because the two 

 wings arise from different centres, and of course describe 

 different circles when in action. 



Hymenoptera— Mymarid.e. 



Tarsi. i Abdomen. ] No.^fToTrits , Mar S ; nal Branch or Sub-coital Vein 

 I in cf and 5 . situated at base of larger Wings. 



Wings, &c. 



Tarsi \ 



5-jointedj 



Mymar 'dae 



or " Fairy- 



Flie," 



Abdomen i j rj 10. 2 9 . 

 petiolated i * cf 13, c. n . 



Abdomen 

 sessile. 



( Tarsi 1 



4-jointedi 



Abdomen I 

 -petiolated ( 



d" 10, 9 



<S 13. 9 

 d 



/NFarginal branch 'extending 



I middle of co ta 



/Marginal branch not extending 

 I middle of casta . . . . 

 Ditto, ditto 



b two-i J M ."TB i ."?.' ora . nc1 } ,on ? ; tars ! ° r f° u ' \ 



jointed 



Club not 

 juinted 



Abdomen 

 sessile. 



o* 13, 



6 10, 



\ • ■ 

 9 9 ■ 

 J 12, 

 6 



9 9 • 



2 9 • 



9 9 • 



( I hind-legs shorter than tibiae 



(Marginal branch short; tarsi offuiiri 

 I hind-legs./o /^rihaii .tibiae . .J 



Marginal branch punctlf. nn . 

 Marginal branch elorg .tecL , 



Genera. 



I - orew ngs 

 |< widened 

 I the top . 



enert tlirout-h- 



||Lasr 3 'jo 5 in?v l ,J Mar2 | 1 nal bra " ch linear : no * ^ 

 1 1, £j \ \ tne " near the. top .... 



1 v orcwiiigs wtd- 

 < ened 



( out . . . . 

 f.Mctalhorax with 

 t 2 keels . ■ ■ 

 fMctathurax not 

 \ keeled . . • 



/Marginal branch elongated; 

 ened near the top 



thick i 



kl 



Can ploptera. 

 I Coctoiius. 



Limacis. 



; Alaptus. 

 Gouatocerus. 



Eustochus. 

 Doiiclytus. 

 Mjmar. 



Cosmocoma. 



Caraphrastus. 



SticothiU. 



Litus. 



Auephes. 

 Anagrus. 



X. D. — d means Male, and $ Female. 



