NATURAL HISTORY CALENDAR. 223 
sting the culms of the wheat and grasses, and various grains, and leaves 
of trees, producing gall-like excrescences, of varying form. Legions of 
these delicate minute flies fill the air at twilight, hovering over wheat- 
fields and shrubbery. A strong heraz west wind, at such times, is of 
incalculable value to the farmer. Moreover, minute flies, allied to the 
house-fly, such as 7 Terrin peren, etc., NOW attack the young cere- 
als, doing immense injury t 
Millions of Aphides, or ak is (Fig. 2), now infest our shade 
and fruit-trees, crowding deel zreen leaf, into which they insert their 
tiny beaks, sucking in the sap, causing the leaves to Fig. 2. 
curl up and wither. They also attack the stems < 
even the roots of plants, prsa these iy Stipes tet , a 
differ Boa game! from the e Plant-lic 
should be again washed nie rabiei to aie wt young Bark-lice, of 
which the common apple Bark-louse Files pan Aan whose 
oyster-shaped scales may be found in myriads on neglected trees, is a 
too familiar exam mple. Another pest of apple-trees is the woolly 
Blight (Eriosoma lant; gera). These insects secrete Fig. 3. 
from the surface of the body a downy, cottony sub- 
stance which conceals the anim mal, and when they 
are, as usual, grouped together on the ig look 
like patches of mould. We figure (Fig. 3) from 
Harris, the Coccus adonidum found on Tke 
The natural-insect enemies of the Plant-lice no 
abound; such are the Lady-bugs (Corint the 
larva of t the Syrphus-fly, which devours immense 
quantities, and the larva of the Rochen Lace- 
oO 
ge 8 
15th to 30th. — The last days of June are Pagid 
the hey: k and jubilee of insect life. The entomo- 
logical world holds high carnival, though a this 
country they are, perhaps, more given to mass- 
meetings and caucuses. The earth, the air, and the 
‘ang teem "a insect-life. The insects of mid-summer now 
Among the butterflies, the -Wood-satyrus (Ne CON eury- 
thris) skips in Py low flight through the p 
ne e la of Grapte 
rs on th nts, while ais Currant-borer moth ( Tro- 
chilium tipuliforme) darts about the leaves on hot sunny days. The 
a ynthia cardui may be found on the hollyhocks; the edt 
or 
of July. The Hyphantria textor now lays its smooth, spherical 
on broad patches on the under side of the leaves of the apple, which 
the caterpillar will ravage in August; and its ally, the Halesidota 
