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No. 145-1 
brilliant golden appearance, which has obtained for them the 
name of Golden-eyes. These last are mostly of a bright pale 
green color, and several of these, although they have such a 
pretty appearance, emit a peculiar and very disagreeable odor* 
which remains upon the fingers for some time after one of them 
has been handled. This odor appears to be given out constantly 
by those species which possess it, and not merely when they are. 
disturbed, as is frequently stated* for in numerous instances I 
have by it been aware of my nearness to one of these insects be¬ 
fore I had seen it. 
These flies may be met with daily during the summer season, 
generally in the vicinity of trees or other herbage infested with 
plant-lice. Their eggs are placed in a very curious manner. 
This work is done in the night time, so that no one has been able 
to inspect one of these insects when engaged in this operation, 
they being so timid as to flit away when approached with a light. 
Still, the mode in which the fly proceeds in this work is sufficiently 
evident. Nature has furnished these insects with a fluid analogous 
to that which spiders are provided for spinning their webs, which 
possesses the remarkable property of hardening immediately on 
being exposed to the air. When ready to drop an egg, the female 
touches the end of her body to the surface of the leaf, and then 
elevating her body, draws out a slender cobweb-like thread, half 
an inch long, or less, and places a little oval egg at' its summit. 
Thus a small round spot resembling mildew is formed upon the 
surface of the leaf, from the middle of which arises a very slen¬ 
der glossy white thread, which is sometimes split at its base, thus 
giving it a more secure attachment than it would have if single. 
The egg at its summit is of a pale green color when newly de¬ 
posited, but before it hatches it becomes whitish, and shows two 
or three faint dusky transverse bands. The larva leaves it, com 
monly I think in less than a week from the time it is deposited, 
through an opening which itgnaws in the summit, and the empty 
shell remains supported on its stalk, somewhat shrivelled and of 
a white color. And where several of these are placed together 
in a group, they bear a close resemblance to the fruit-bearing or¬ 
gans of those mosses whose capsules are elevated upon capillary 
