174 



THE BOOK OF CHOICE FERNS. 



becomes in a short time quite a living object, the ants tilling up the holes 

 of the sponge, which may then be plunged into boiling water. 



Although they sometimes attack hardy Ferns, all the above-mentioned 

 insects are particularly the enemies of stove and greenhouse kinds. British 

 Ferns have as their greatest foe a semi-transparent green fly, which affects 

 principally the Lady Fern, Asplenium (Athyrium) Filix-fcemina ; it apparently 

 lays its eggs in the crowns of the plants, so that in the spring they rise with 

 and hatch upon the young fronds, upon which the young brood feed at once. 

 It is easily distinguished from the common green fly as it runs about swiftly, 

 and is a voracious sap-feeder. Like the thrips among stove and greenhouse 

 kinds, this fly rapidly spoils the appearance of the Ferns with which it 

 comes into contact ; after its passage, traces are left which cannot by 

 any means be eradicated. This insect appears to thrive best where light is 

 somewhat scanty, as it is in such places that its depredations are mostly 

 noticed. It is only seen in spring and early summer, and this is explained by 

 its transformation, about July, into a shining, hard, brown insect, having much 

 resemblance to a large flea. The most practical way to deal with the insect 

 is to carefully search for and destroy the first spring broods, by which means 



its spreading is abruptly arrested. British 

 Ferns have also in the leather-coated grub of 

 the "daddy long-legs" (Fig. 17) a very serious 

 Fig, 17. Grub of "Daddy Long-Legs" enemy, which, during its nocturnal excursions, 

 (nat. size). plays great havoc among the young fronds of 



many kinds. Its depreciations are carried on 

 all the safer as, through its general appearance, very little, if any, suspicion 

 is attached to it ; when full grown, this insect, if we may call it by such a 

 name, resembles a tiny, dull black sausage seldom exceeding lin. in length, 

 and is very destructive. It is essentially a night-feeder, and never gets far 

 away from its larder, burying itself in the ground close to the plant attacked. 

 The best plan, when it has been ascertained that this is the cause of the 

 mischief, is to lift the plant bodily out of the soil with all the earth possible, 

 and then, with a hand-trowel, see if the delinquent has taken refuge in the 

 soil surrounding the ball (in which it frequently buries itself after its meal, 

 and from which it emerges the following night) ; by this means its destruction 

 is greatly simplified. 



