GARDENS AND THEIR MEANING 
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in the midst of a swarm of these aphids. From the moment 
the young hatch they may be said to "do the duty that lies 
nearest to them," which apparently is to clear of parasites 
the leaves upon which a kind Providence has placed them. 
These larvae are grotesque creatures. Black with reddish 
spots, or occasionally blue, they bristle all over with so many 
warts and spines that no wonder they themselves are not 
relished by other animals. They consume indiscriminately 
plant lice, scale animals, and the young, eggs and larvae, of 
all sorts of insects. In both the larva and adult stage this 
little beetle carries on its scavenger work. It belongs in the 
list of animals which will repay indoor study. 
It has been thought that the nests of these lady beetles, 
whose habit it is to hibernate snugly in balls, as these are 
called, under piles of brush, might possibly be collected 
and distributed in infested gardens. Why not try it ? There 
seems also to be no reason why lady beetles may not be 
kept alive through the winter on house plants, but up to this 
time nobody appears to have done this successfully. 
There are a number of other beetles whose use should be 
recognized. Conspicuous among them is the tiger beetle, a 
fierce consumer of caterpillars. Then there is the ichneumon 
fly, a sort of parasitic wasp, which acts as an insect killer for 
nearly every sort of plant. Its habit is to lay a bunch of 
eggs on or in the body of the larva of some other insect, with 
the result, of course, that this larva is consumed by the newly 
hatched intruder. The cleverness with which this egg laying 
is accomplished is certainly marvelous. 
Of ichneumon flies there are many species. They vary 
greatly in size, several of them being very beautiful. One 
species drills into the firm tissue of trees, in order to lay her 
eggs in or upon the body of some wood-boring larva, which, 
concealed well beneath the bark of some handsome maple, is 
