502 The American Naturalist. [June, 
body ; they consist of a thin, transparent membrane, stretched 
between a beautiful net-work of delicate greenish veins, which 
bear rows of brownish hairs. The front and hind wings are 
quite similar in shape, the hind ones being somewhat smaller; 
when at rest the insect folds them in a nearly vertical position 
(f), so that they project some distance beyond the end of the 
abdomen, which is slender and sparsely covered with hairs. 
The female Lace-wings deposit their eggs on the long stalks 
already mentioned. The stalk is drawn out from a liquid 
secretion which hardens on exposure to the air, and the egg is 
then glued on to the tip. By thus placing the eggs up above 
the leaf surface the insect prevents their being eaten by lady 
bird beetles and other predaceous creatures, including the 
aphis-lions themselves. A week or more later the eggs hatch 
into young aphis-lions, which, like their namesakes of the 
desert, go about seeking what they may devour. 
While the beauty of the color and structure of the Lace-wing 
appeals strongly to the eye of the nature-lover, the insect has 
a very different effect upon his nose; for these delicate crea- 
tures emit probably the most disagreeable odor of any insects. 
It is worse, to many minds at least, than that given off by the 
bedbug and its allies, or even the -noisome pestilence of the 
carrion-beetles. How so small an insect, reared from infancy 
upon a cleanly diet of the juices of just-killed animals, spend- 
ing its resting period in a “glistening, white cocoon, which 
looks like a large seed-pearl,” and deriving nourishment as an 
adult from cleanly sources, can develop so disagreeable a stench 
is indeed a wonder. But this is only one of many similar 
marvels that have been produced in the age-long struggle for 
existence through which the countless generations of insect 
life have passed. The purpose of the odor is doubtless to pro- 
tect the Lace-wing from the attacks of birds and other enemies. 
The Lace-wings belong to the family Chrysopide of the order 
Neuroptera. Most of the species are placed in the single genus 
Chrysopa. The stages of C. oculata are illustrated in the ac- 
companying figure, for the loan of which we are indebted to 
the Cornell University Experiment Station. 
