INSECTS 



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perament to match, 

 is also a common 

 frequenter of the 

 aphid colonies and 

 levies a toll on the 

 lives of the meek 

 and helpless insects. 

 This marauder is 

 well named the 

 aphis-lion. He is the larva of a gentle, 

 harmless creature with large pale-green 

 lacy wings and brilliant golden eyes 

 (Fig. 104 A). The parent females 

 show a remarkable prescience of the 

 nature of their offspring, for they sup- 

 port their eggs on the tips of long 

 threadlike 

 stalks, usu- 

 ally attached 

 to the under 

 surfaces of 

 leaves (B). 

 The device 

 seems to be a 

 scheme for preventing the first 

 of the greedy brood that will 

 hatch from devouring its own 

 brothers and sisters still in their 

 eggs ; 



Wherever the aphids are 

 crowded there is almost sure 

 to be seen crawling among 

 them soft grayish or green 

 wormlike creatures, mostly less 

 than a quarter of an inch in 

 length. The body is legless and 

 tapers to the forward end, 



Fig. 104. The golden- 

 eye, Chrysopa, the par- 

 ent of the aphis-lion, 



and its eggs 

 A, the adult insect. B, 

 a group of eggs sup- 

 ported on long thread- 

 like stalks on the under 

 surface of a leaf 



Fig. 105. A larva of a syrphus 

 fly feeding on aphids 



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