AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
172 
i J '■: 
Fig. I—Prolific Lace wing Fly, (Hemerobius Nmnniia), mag¬ 
nified—The cross lines on the left show’ the natural size. 
Microscopic Views of the Insect World. IV. 
BY MRS. CHARLOTTE TAYLOR. 
THE PROLIFIC LACE WING FLY.- HcmerobiuS Nu- 
menia. 
It is one of the greatest accomplishments in 
life to be able to distinguish our true friends 
among our acquaintances, much more is it to be 
able to succor and protect the beneficial and ser¬ 
viceable creatures with which the Divine Crea¬ 
tor has surrounded us—I was grieved beyond 
measure the past season, to see a man standing, 
knife in hand, very industriously scraping some¬ 
thing from the leaves of a Dahlia plant. 
“ What are you doing!” I asked. 
“ Scraping off these long-stemmed things,” he 
answeied, ‘‘they hatch the ugliest little lice, that 
eat the leaves, spoiling every plant I have.” 
“You are wrong,” said I, “they are the very 
salvation of your plants, “these,” pointing out 
hundreds o f 
Aphides — 
“ these destroy 
your plants, the 
others are plac¬ 
ed here to re¬ 
lieve them of 
ill is destroyer.” 
‘‘Pooh !” he re¬ 
plied, “ I know 
better ; every ''•(* 
year I do the 
same thing, 
and this is the 
reason I have a 
f e w Dahlias 
■eft, otherwise 
! should have 
tone.” I bow- 
«d and passed 
»n. I am fear¬ 
ful there are 
many like him, 
And if this little 
treatise c a n 
J Fig. 2— li. The Antennae, always 13 
of one such jointed—c. Antennae of the second 
h r U „ tly— e. The Ovipositor (egg-tulie) con- 
naroarian, 0e; ,| 0( ( within—A. The Mandibles or 
what success ! jaws. 
The Hemerobius Nurnenia is so called from 
its eggs being found newly deposited on the Aqi- 
ple tree, Dahlia, honey suckle, and various other 
plants, from June to October, and far into Novem¬ 
ber if the season he mild. The Hemerobii be¬ 
long to the second family of the Neuroptera. 
The peifeot insect or Imago, has splendidly me¬ 
tallic colored eyes, globose and very prominent, 
which have obtained for all this family the name 
^f'tlifi ” Golden Eyed Fly.” The body is long, 
antenna 1 moniliform, (resembling a neck¬ 
lace), the wings nearly equal in size, not 
folded, bent down, beautifully divided into 
meshes finer and more transparent than 
any lace, which gives them another name, 
the “ Lace wing fly.” The tarsi or feet, 
have five joints, the mandibles are mastica¬ 
tory or fitted for cutting food. They have 
a peculiar smell, to many persons very dis¬ 
agreeable, which I think can be traced to 
the decomposition of vegetable juices re¬ 
quired by the female to manufacture the 
glutinous liquid she needs when depositing 
her eggs. The males of this family have 
little or no scent, and what they have, seems 
to be obtained from their companions. The 
one before you, Fig. 1, is very much dis¬ 
tended with eggs ; she had deposited a 
great number before she was caught—they 
are generally very slender. 
This is not a pretty specimen, her eyes are very 
brilliant, however. She is hairy, in some lights 
has a dull yellowish color, then again she is all 
black. She has no spots on her wings, except one 
at the stigma ; (a small dark spot seen on the up¬ 
per side of the wing, fig. 
1); the costal nervure— 
(the horny rib running 
along the upper side of 
the wing,) is peculiarly 
strong ; the veins are all 
a very dark green, al¬ 
most black. In a good 
light you may perceive a 
dark line descending in a 
point on the thorax. 
Six years ago, this fly 
Fig. 4—Larva ready to spin. 
ceive, placed on these high stalks, they are safe 
from these fierce but valuable little creatures. As 
soon as hatched, the larva crawls down into the 
midst of its garden of Eden, a whole field of 
aphis eggs, or any 
Olliers belonging 
io the insect 
kingdom. It now 
rests for an hour 
or more, some¬ 
times two days) 
according to the weather, when the first skin 
bursts, and out walks a personage which will 
make an impress on his or her age. No 
time is lost, every egg near by is sucked by 
its long sickle jaws, and the “slaying of the in¬ 
nocents ” is enacted with terrible fidelity. ' The 
jaws are as simple as possible in construction, two 
long bent pieces of hollow horn, with tubes run¬ 
ning down them, which unite into one, passing 
through the entire body, nourishing every part 
most affluently. Indefatigable industry, and an 
insatiable appetite, render it to us, if cherished 
and allowed its own way, a member of the most 
valuable family of insects we have in this coun¬ 
try, and which is apparently augmenting every 
season—the new 
genera seem 
i n e x haustible.— 
The larvae like¬ 
wise of every oth¬ 
er insect are ac¬ 
ceptable to them, 
even the trouble¬ 
some inch worms 
\un-& 
was abundant on apple trees and other plants in 
Massachusetts. I never met with it again until 
June of last year. On the same plant from which 
this was taken, a leaf was obtained, on which 
were two cocoons, from one of which partly 
emerged another genus—its wings were never 
unfolded, it died in extricating itself. I give the 
antenna, c. Fig. 2, on account of its singularity. 
The manner in which she deposits her eggs, 
has puzzled authors for a long time, hut the pro¬ 
cess is simple when you can observe the in¬ 
sect. She touches the under part of the leaf with 
the points of her abdomen ; the glue, which 
is very much thicker than that of other 
insects, is dropped on it from two tubes 
on each side of the oviduct (egg tube); 
she then elevates her body until it forms 
an angle with her head. The thread by 
which the egg is attached to the leaf, Fig. 
3, I have always noticed is the length of 
the fly’s abdomen; some being very short, 
others very long, consequently you can tell 
by the length of the thread or foot stalk on 
which the egg is placed, whether the fly 
will be a large or small specimen—1 
merely give this as my experience, I have 
never known it to fail. If you look at these 
stalks,/, fig. 3, you will see that from the globule 
of glue, two threads spring out, which unite into 
one, and when her abdomen has attained all the 
elevation she is able to give it, an egg -descends 
from the oviduct and is placed thereon, so firmly 
attached, no storm of wind or rain can disturb ii. 
You ask the question why is this done 1 She un¬ 
derstands this beautiful provision of nature.— 
She knows herovvn children or larvae are greedy, 
carnivorous creatures, devouring every thing in 
the shape of egg or larval, and would suck up 
their brothers with the same sangfroid they would 
their own natural food, the Aphides, thus you per¬ 
(the Geometri- 
Fig. 3— d. Leaf with eggs on tlieir supporting threads.—/. Single dae) fall victims 
eggs.— g. Newly hatched Larva descending. ' 
to their gor¬ 
mandizing proclivities. They are found scat¬ 
tered on every plant, at some seasons much more 
numerous than at others, and we can not conceive 
the immense obligations we owe these insects, in 
garden, orchard, and field. The larva is, I allow, 
exceedingly ugly indeed—I confess more, the 
very ugliest in the kingdom, except that of 
the dragon-fly, one of the same family. They 
are of various colors. The one here represent¬ 
ed, Fig. 5, was of a pale sickly greenish color, with 
two lighter spots on the three segments on which 
the dumpy awkward legs are placed. The legs 
Fig. 5—The Larva attacking an aphis. 
have black hooks on the last joints, enabling them 
to move quickly, and to hold on very firmly when 
the wind is high, by passing them through Ihe 
long hairs with which all leaves arc more or b 
clothed It. is covered on the body with short 
black hairs, and small black dots, its antenna; fil 
iform (thread like). The eyes are very conspic¬ 
uous, hut have none of the brilliancy of those of 
the perfect insect. After it has studied murder 
in an artistic and practical light long emmgh, 
and can gormandize no longer, it is swollen to an 
enormous breadth, and must rest, sometimes three 
('ays, I suppose to allow the juices of its body to 
