HOUSE AND GARDEN 
54 
July, 
1915 
No. 21, Blue Bird No. 25, Woodpecker. No. 23, Wren 
RUSTIC HOUSES 
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which direction to fly, and was by this 
means able to guide himself to within five' 
degrees of the direction of the female. 
In addition to the organs named, others 
of a special sense have been discovered 
at or near the base of the wings in flies, 
beetles, butterflies and moths, dragon-flies 
and grasshoppers, with a trace of them in 
bugs. These have been variously con¬ 
sidered organs of smell and hearing. In 
the two-winged flies there are the rudi¬ 
ments of a second pair of wings, known as 
halteres or balancers. At the base of the 
balteres there are a number of small blad¬ 
ders arranged in four groups, to each of 
which extends a branch of a large nerve— 
after the optic nerve, the largest in the 
insect. Each of these bladders is per¬ 
forated and contains a minute hair. It is 
thought that these sense organs allow the 
perception of movements which the 
halteres perform, and which enable the 
fly to direct its course. 
There are some common insects that 
seem doomed to remain unknown, not only 
to the general public, but to the enthusias¬ 
tic entomologist also. Among these are 
the aleurodes, or powder-wings, a name 
given to them because their wings, instead 
of being covered with microscopic scales, 
as in the butterflies and moths, are coated 
with a delicate powder very like flour for 
fineness. Several species that may be 
found on the under surface of leaves have 
a very close resemblance to a small moth. 
Indeed, the great Linnaeus actually in¬ 
cluded these insects as moths in his natural 
system of classification. Other great men 
followed “the illustrious Swede,” and it 
remained for Latrielle, in 1795, to show 
that these insects had near affinity to the 
plant-lice, among which he placed them. 
Later investigators, for good reasons, have 
removed them from that family, though 
allowing them to remain in the same order 
as the plant-lice and the scale-insects. To 
the last-named they are more nearly akin 
than to any other family. 
One of the reasons why so few students 
of insect life have paid any attention to 
this group is to be found, no doubt, in 
their small size, and in the difficulty — in 
some cases the impossibility—of distin¬ 
guishing between the species in their 
winged condition. The wings are always 
white or pale yellow, spotless or with in¬ 
definite darker marks, reminding one of 
the finger-and-thumb mark on the sides 
of the haddock. It is in the earlier stages 
that we find dififerences of form, color, or¬ 
namentation and food-plant that enable us 
the better to distinguish between the 
species. 
They are produced from eggs, the ma¬ 
ture insect not sharing the power pos¬ 
sessed by the plant-lice for producing liv¬ 
ing young. These eggs are elliptical in 
shape, with a short footstalk by means of 
which they are attached erectly to the un¬ 
der side of a leaf. They are usually 
colored pale yellow or orange; and one 
female lays a large number of them. They 
hatch in from ten days to a fortnight—on 
In writing to advertisers, please mention House & Garden. 
an average, say, twelve days; and it is 
interesting to note that similar periods 
bound the larval and pupal stages. The 
newly hatched larva—one can hardly ap¬ 
ply the term grub in this case — imme¬ 
diately selects a suitable spot into which 
to insert its beak, and there it remains un¬ 
til it has acquired wings. At this period 
it is elliptical in shape, almost flat, and so 
thin and colorless as to be nearly trans¬ 
parent. For this reason it is difficult to 
make out any organs; but as growth pro¬ 
ceeds these become more evident. The 
presence or absence of hairs and spines, 
differences of color and of the character 
of waxy fringes, distinguishes the species 
one from another. One organ is evident in 
all species from the beginning. This is 
an opening on the upper side of the hind¬ 
most segment of the body, and it is fitted 
with a sort of lid for closing it or opening 
to allow the extrusion of a tongue-like 
process. From this orifice the insect ap¬ 
pears to furnish a sweet, sticky fluid like 
that supplied by _plant-lice and scale-in- 
sects, and it has the similar power of en¬ 
listing the kindly offices of ants for their 
protection. In most respects these larval 
powder-wings are like scale-insects. 
In most species the pupal stage is en¬ 
tered upon within the skin of the larva; 
on being withdrawn the rudiments of the 
future legs and antennae may be seen. In 
some cases the larval skin breaks up and 
reveals the pupa. 
The perfect insects may be distin¬ 
guished from the two-winged male scale- 
insects by the possession of four wings. 
There is a common species to be found on 
the under side of bramble leaves near the 
ground, whose habits the present writer 
has had the opportunity for watching more 
closely than in other species. It is found 
that the female, before laying her pale 
yellow eggs, takes care to dust a small area 
of the leaf with the white meal, presum¬ 
ably from the under surface of her wings. 
This is a useful clue to anybody searching 
for the eggs, which are very minute and 
not appreciable to some eyes. If these 
mealy patches are first found, the pocket- 
lens may be brought into requisition, and 
the eggs will be found scattered over the 
patch, and standing on end like ninepins. 
There is one species that is found on 
the under side of cabbage leaves, and, ac¬ 
cording to the gardening books, in such 
numbers as to be regarded as a pest. The 
cabbage powder-wing may be distin¬ 
guished from that found on bramble by an 
additional dark patch, extending nearly 
across the middle of the wing from back 
to front. A very similar species is that 
found on the celandine. 
One with the wings entirely unspotted 
may be found in numbers upon the haw¬ 
thorn and other plants. In the larval stage 
this is a more striking form, owing to the 
white, mealy patches upon its upper side 
and the fringe of waxy hairs around the 
margins of the body. 
