374 Microscopical Essays. 



they are compofed of delicate fine nerves, regularly and elegantly 

 difpofed, as may be feen in the figure; they are beautifully 

 adorned with hairs, and are (lightly tinged with green. The 

 body is of a fine green colour, and its eyes appear like two 

 delicate beads of burnifhed gold, from whence it is by many 

 called the golden eye. This curious little infe6l lays it's eggs on 

 the leaves of the plumb, rofe tree, &c. the eggs are fmall and 

 white, and each of them fixed to a little pedicle, or foot (talk, 

 about half an inch long ; they ftand off from the leaf, and appear 

 much like the fructification of fome of the modes. This fmgular 

 circumftance has been already noticed in page 265 of thefe effays. 

 The larva which proceed from thefe eggs refemble that of the 

 coccinella, or lady cow, but are much handfomer ; it feeds like 

 them on the aphides, or pucerons, fucking their blood, and 

 forming itfelf a cafe with their dried bodies, in which it changes 

 into the pupa ftate, from whence they afterwards immerge in the 

 form of the fly here defcribed. 



Fig. 2, Plate XIV. reprefents the wing of the forficula auricu- 

 laria, or earwig, (Linn. Syft. Nat. vol. I, part 2, page 686-1) of 

 the natural fize. Fig. 1, the fame wing magnified. Though this 

 infeft is fo very common, yet few people know that they 

 have wings, and fewer yet have feen them ; they are of a curious 

 and elegant texture, and wonderful ftrufture. The upper part is 

 cruftaceous and opake, while the other partis beautifully tranf- 

 parent. It folds up into a very fmall .com pafs, and lies nearly 

 concealed under the elytra, which are not more than a fixth part 

 of the wing in fize. They firft fold back the parts A B, and then 

 fhirt up the ribs like a fan ; the ftrong mufcles ufed for this purpofe 

 are feen at the upper part of the figure. The ribs are extended 



from 



