e stem upon which
he has fastened himself, and finally exuded from the pores of his body.
This is the spume-bearer, _Aprophora_, in his first or larval estate,
which continues for a few weeks only. Erelong he will graduate from
these ignominious surroundings, and we shall see quite another sort of
creature--an agile, pretty atom, one of which I have indicated in
flight, its upper wings being often brilliantly colored, and re-enforced
by a pair of hind feet which emulate those of the flea in their powers
of jumping, which agility has won the insect the popular name of
"froghopper." They abound in the late summer meadow, and hundreds of
them may be captured by a few sweeps of a butterfly-net among the grass.
My other remaining claimant for notice, shown upon the plant at the
right margin of page 60, is a modest and inconspicuous individual, and
might readily escape attention, save that a more intent observer might
possibly wonder at the queer little tubular pinkish blossoms upon the
plant--a rush--while a keen-eyed botanist would instantly challenge the
right of a _juncus_ to such a tubular blossom at all, especially at
seed-time, and thus investigate. But the entomologist will probably
classify this peculiar blossom at a glance, from its family resemblance
to other specimens with which he is familiar. He will know, for
instance, that this is a sort of peripatetic or nomadic blossom that
will travel about on the plant, with which its open end will always
remain in close contact. Many of the individuals are seen apparently
growing upright out of the rounded seed-pod of the rush; and when the
pink or speckled tube finally concludes to take up its travels, a clean
round hole marks the spot of its tarrying, and an empty globular shell
tells the secret of this brief attachment.
For this petal-like tube, so commonly to be seen upon the little rush of
our paths, is, in truth, a tiny silken case enclosing the body of a
small larva--a diminutive psychid, or sack-bearer, which I have not
chanced to see described. Only the head and six prolegs of the occupant
ever emerge from its case. Dragging its house along upon the plant, it
attaches the open mouth of the sack close to the green seed-pod, after
which the shell is gnawed through at the point of contact, and the young
seeds devoured at pleasure, when a new journey is made to the next
capsule, and thus until the maturity of the larva. At this time the
case is about half an inc
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