Beneficial Insects

Beetles are not the ouly bcneficial insects by any means; by lar the greater number are fouud aniong the Ilymenoptera. This order neludes the parasiüc Ichncumon-flies, which range all the way from flies an inch or more in length, to minute spec'es scareely visible to the n ,-iked eye. Tiie larger kinds deposit only one egg in each victini, while some of the smaller leave their entire complement of cggs on one catorpillar. A well-kuown example, which s familiar to most gardners, may be found in the Tomato-worui. A small, black, microgaster fly goes pcering about among the tomato-vines uatil it esiplea a worm on which it lays its erg-i. These soon hatch, and the tiay larvse cat theit way iuto the worm and are soon thiekly paeked betwoen the skin and vital organs, where they eat all the snbstanoe that would otherwiso go to makc the future motli, and their presenco does not prevent the worm from eating and gro ving uatil the little parásitos are fnll-fed, wheu they eat their way out of their host, and each stands on end and spins for itsolf a tiny white cocoon. Sometimos these cocoons are so numeroua that the back of tho worm is almost entirel covcred with théffi, aad dow it shrivels and rapidly shrinks in sizo and soon dies. And tlils work of ddstruction is constautly going on all around us. Were it not for these parasites, vegetation could