HEMEROBIIDiE. 
155 
on weeds, on the cotton plant, on the ground, and if one watches care¬ 
fully in the dusk, one may see a long green fly laying them some fifteen 
to twenty in a little cluster. In a few days (a little over a week), these 
eggs hatch, the thin shell bursting at the tip to allow the little 
creature to emerge ; it sits on the egg shell on the top of the stalk 
till it has recovered from its cramped position in the egg and then runs 
off looking for aphis. It is a very active creature, with long legs, a 
slender body set with spines and a pair of long curved mandibles on the 
Fig. 78.— Egg and larva of chrysopa. 
head. It is most voracious, catching the aphides in its hollow mandibles 
and sucking out the juice of their body. Having emptied the skin, it 
puts it on its back, where the long spines hold it, and eats the next 
aphis. This process continues indefinitely throughout the larval life 
of the little creature ; it moves about with a large heap of the skins of 
its victims on its back, and it is no easy 
matter to make out what one has got hold 
of when one sees this extraordinary mass 
running over the cotton plant. At the 
periodical moult it gets rid of the accu¬ 
mulation of skins, which by no means in¬ 
cludes those of all its victims and starts a 
fresh covering. Their voraciousness is 
very great and in captivity the single 
larva required on an average some 160 
Fig. 79.— Cocoon of chrysopa. . 1 . . 
aphides tor one day s tood. t his is 
