Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-12-12
A Tactful Mother.
By Anna Botsford Comstock

A Tactful Mother.
By Anna Botsford Comstock
Everywhere in the world the wisest moth
ers are those who do all in their power tC
make their children good. The most sue
cessful method of doing this. I suppose, Is
to make 1t easier for children to be good
than to be bad, by removing the sources OF
temptations to naughtiness. The little
mother of this story has a wonderful de-
vice of this sort by which she controls heI
naturally selfish and greedy family.
This mother is a pretty, tiny creature
dainty enough to belong to the court of a
fairy queen. She has green wings about a
half inch in length and all through them
runs a network Of darker green veins. No
lady ever dressed for ball in a prettier
combination of gauze and lace than this lit
tie creature wears every day. Her slender
body Is also pale green. and her antennae
are brown: but her greatest beauty lies in
pair of large eyes that shine and glow
like liquid gold. AS much praise cannot
be given to the perfume she affects as to
her personal appearances; many a person
who has captured this delicate creature has
been surprised at the disagreeable odor she
exhaled. However, the very purpose of this
questionable perfume Is to discourage OBJ
trusive people and birds from becoming too
familiar with her. Because of her beauty
she has been called Lace wing and
"Golden-eyes'' by her admirers. but her
scientific name is Chrysopa, and her family
is called the Chrysopinoe.
We might naturally Infer that such a
lovely mother would have most attractive
children. but this Is far from true The
young of Madam Lace-wing are short-leg-
ged. spindle-shaped. sturdy little fellows,
with no sign Of wings. but with great sickle
atn mad farr Na-r- In fnr t,,.a t.
is the unfailing index of insect character;
when they are sharp pointed and huge. as
in this case, they mean death and destruc-
ton to any smaller Insect unfortunate
enough to cross the path of their owner.
The more common prey of the young Chry-
sopa are the aphids or plant-lice; so de-
structive to the aphis are these bloodthirsty
creatures that they are known as aphis-
lions. Although we may not look with
pleasure on such wholesale slaughter, yet
we must confess that we owe the aphis-
lions vote Of thanks for their work in
destroying plant-lice which infest almost
every plant and tree that we try to cultivate
and which are the inveterate foes of our
roses. Tl"s
However. there is little virtue In the in
tentions of the aphis lion. His highest as
piration is to find something that he may
eat; and not alone aphids but every insect
egg that he finds and every insect that he
can conquer helps to fill his Unsuitable lit
tie stomach. His method of killing his prey
is peculiar Each of his sickle-shaped Jaws
Is composed of mandible. with a groove
along Its entire length, and a maxilla fitting
over this groove. as to make a tube one
end of which opens at the tip of the jaw and
the other opening in the creatures mouth
When he catches an a.phid. he thrusts these
long. hollow weapons into its soft body and
lifts 1t high in the air.. as II drinking a
bumper, while he sucks Its blood through
ms tubular Jaws as "a man would drink
lemonade through two straws.
I'm tn
mother Laee7wing had to- solve:4crIf she
merely laid her eggs on the leaf In a group,
the earliest Matched larya, in hunting for
something to satisfy his first hunger, would
surely turn cannfbal and make his first meal
off his unmatched brothers and sisters.
Little mother Goiden-eyes Is not so friyo-
lous and silly as her transparent beauty
might suggest. She has wisdom to solve her
perplexing problem satisfactorily, and this
is her method: When about to lay an egg
she places first a minute drop of sticky
fluid on the surface of the leaf; this she
spins up into slender thread by lifting 1t
on the tip of her abdomen as high as she
can: the air dries the thread quickly and
1t Is strong enough to sustain the egg
which she fastens on top of IT. The result
Is that each egg is supported half inch
above the surface of the leaf by hair-like
pedicei. These groups of Chrysopa eggs are
very pretty and are often mistaken for
patches of glistening white fungus upon
leaves. for they look more like the spore
When the eldest Of the family breaks his
Shell, he drops or scrambles down from his
egg perch as best he can. and In his imme-
diate hunt for food wanders harmlessly
around the bases of the threads which sup
port his unmatched brothers and sisters far
above his head and probably beyond his
sight. His rapid-moving little legs take
him soon far from his birthplace to where
unsuspecting aphids are pumping sap, and
then the slaughter begins unless, perchance
some ant guardian averts the attack Each
member of the family In its turn follows his
example and wanders out into the great
world beyond its native leaf guiltless of
fratricide. Yet II two aphis-Iions meet
there is likely to be a trial-of strength. I
saw one once try to drink the family blood
flowing In younger brothers body he
attempted at first to find weak place in
the armor OF his intended victim. but the
latter always turned and twisted in way
to present horny surface to his murder
Gus brother and thus managed finally to es-
cape though he certainly showed evidences
Of genuine fright.
After season of Iaryal imbibing each
aphis-lion rolls itself up In a little ball and
weaves around itself thick coat of glist-
ening white silk. thus making-a cocoon that
looks like a seed-pearl fastened to a leaf
1t is to be hoped that during this period of
seclusion the recluse meditates
upon the selfshness of it's past career and
decides upon an entire reforma ton. This is
the case: for after a time per
haps whole winter. 1t cuts a dainty, cir
cular lid at the top Of its pearl prison and
energies creature no longer spindle shaped
and sickle jawed. but with wide, filmy
wings that have been folded and packed in
the tiny cocoon. In fact. the wonders which
have been worked in that pearly cell are
greater than those wrought by any magi-
clan in fairy tale: for within its walls an
ugly. greedy aphis-lion has been changed to
a beautiful. golden-eyed ylace-wing.
After studying this Chrysopa biography,
one naturally wonders, fhew these golden
eyed mothers gained segrpech wisdom: how
did they happen to think tont such a fine
scheme? Scientists will answer that 1t was
not thought out at all. but has been brought
about by certain fairy godmother called
Evolution" They say that long long ago
the Chrysopa ancestresSes merely fastened
their eggs to the leaf with a drop of sticky