56 GRAMMAR OF ENTOMOLOGY. 



Pinks, carnations, and dahlias, very frequently 

 lose all their beauty from the voracity of these 

 insects. 



173. When the time of breeding has arrived, 

 which is generally in the autumn, the female 

 retires for protection to the cracks in the bark of 

 old trees, or the interstices of weather-boarding, 

 or under heavy stones on the ground : here she 

 makes a smooth place, and commences laying her 

 eggs. 



174. The eggs are usually from twenty to fifty 

 in number : when she has finished laying them, 

 she does not forsake them, as is the habit of other 

 insects, but sits on them in the manner of a hen 

 until they are hatched. 



175. When the little ones leave the shell, they 

 are instantly very perceptibly larger than the 

 eggs which contained them. They precisely re- 

 semble the parent in structure and habit, except 

 that they are without wings ; and they difier also 

 in colour, being perfectly white. 



176. The care of the mother does not cease 

 with the hatching of the eggs : the young ones 

 run after her wherever she moves, and she con- 

 tinues to sit on them and brood over them with 

 the greatest affection for many days. 



177. If the young ones are disturbed or scat- 

 tered, or if the parent is taken away from them, 

 she will, on the first opportunity, collect them 

 again, and brood over them as carefully as before, 



