assisted in catching its prey by the structure which 
enables it to use its long jaws in various directions, and 
thus grasp the eggs as well as capture the young bugs; 
also that it is readily detected in its native haunts either 
as a grub or pupa by the powdery mass of covering which 
it assumes, and which when pilfered from the bug gives 
it a completely snowflake appearance; or when at rest it 
might be passed over as a small mass of spider’s web. 
The precise description of the egg has not been given, 
but it is the nature of the Hemerobiidce, to which family 
this Golden Eye belongs, for the female to discharge a 
small quantity of sticky matter in the process of laying 
each egg. This draws out in the operation into a long 
fine thread, at the free extremity of which the egg is 
borne very much like the head of a pin on its stem. 
The sketch of eggs added to those of the larva and perfect 
insect of this Golden Eye merely conveys an idea of the 
general method of egg-deposit of this family.* 
Insect-enemies of I. purchasi at Adelaide, S. Australia. 
In the course of correspondence with Mr. Frazer S* 
Crawford, of Adelaide, S. Australia,! on I eery a purchasi, 
he favoured me with the following communication :— 
“ For the last three years I have had a colony of I. 
purchasi in a lemon tree in my garden ; the other day, 
being desirous of obtaining some living specimens, I found 
that every one had been destroyed, nor a single young one 
could I find after a prolonged search. This has been the 
result of two parasites. First, the larva of one of our 
native Coccinellidce; but the principal exterminator has 
been a dipterous insect in the shape of a minute metallic 
greenish black fly. 
“Nowthe parasite has so completely exterminated the 
host” that Mr. Crawford considers it likely to destroy it 
* An excellent account of the general life-history of the Hemerobiidce 
will be found in Prof. Westwood’s ‘ Introd. to Classification of Insects,’ 
vol. ii., p. 47. 
f Government Inspector under the Vine, Fruit, and Vegetables Pro¬ 
tection Act, and Lecturer on Economic Entomology, &c. 
