“CAN’T say with certainty,” replied Billy, “until I look in my note book.”
“Well, it’s just inside the play house, isn’t it?” asked Mary Frances.
“I’m getting rather tired, Mary Frances,” said Billy.
“Oh, go get it, Billy,” Mary Frances begged, “please do, bring it out to the garden bench—that’s a good fellow.”
“Well, if it were any other subject than gardening, you couldn’t persuade me, young lady; but I guess I’ll go.”
“There are lots of beneficial insects named,” he said, coming out of the play house, “but the one you know best is a different kind of a bird from the feathered——”
“I know! I know!” eagerly interrupted Mary Frances, repeating the old rhyme—
“‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home!Your house is on fire, and your children will burn.’”
“‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home!Your house is on fire, and your children will burn.’”
“‘Ladybird, Ladybird, fly away home!
Your house is on fire, and your children will burn.’”
“Good!” exclaimed Billy. “Ladybird or ladybug; but why they are given so charming a name, I can’t imagine.”
“I can imagine, Billy. Have you ever noticed, besides being so very pretty, how neat they are; how ladylike they look when they fold their wing covers and tuck in their inside wings; and did you ever see them wash themselves? They do it so carefully! I don’t wonder at their being named Ladybirds.”
“Humph, Mary Frances, you certainly have an enviable imagination. I should say they were more fittingly named Possumbugs. Have you ever noticed how they ‘play possum’ when you try to pick them up?”
“Indeed I have,” Mary Frances laughed at the remembrance. “Maybe they do that to save their lives just as opossums do; but they are so very pretty that I’d call them Ladybirds for that reason alone.”
“Not all are pretty alike,” commented Billy.
“Why, don’t they all wear shiny red dresses with black polka dots?” asked Mary Frances.
“No,” smiled Billy, “some wear shiny blackdresses with red or yellow polka, dots; sometimes the dress is yellow with black spots.”
“Oh, isn’t that interesting!” cried Mary Frances. “I never tried the rhyme on any but the red ones with black dots.”
“I never ‘tried’ the rhyme. How do they act?” asked Billy.
“Well,” laughed Mary Frances, “usually, if you blow your breath upon them, they fly away; if you just watch them, they generally turn around and run as fast as they can in the opposite direction from which they were going.”
“Probably looking for food,” said Billy.
“Probably running to save their children’s lives.” Mary Frances was quite indignant.
“Perhaps my notes will tell,” said Billy, opening his note book again and beginning to read:
The Ladybird is a little beetle about a third of an inch long. There are many species of ladybirds; they all are of the same general shape, somewhat like a split pea, but much smaller. They are usually of brilliant shiny colors with spots of contrasting colors: sometimes red with black spots; sometimes black withred or yellow spots, sometimes yellow with black spots. The young or larvæ of the ladybird are not in the least like their mothers. They are little black, rough, worm-like creatures with six legs, having reddish-yellow or rusty spots on their backs. Both the young and the parents are very helpful to the garden because they eat harmful insects—scale insects and aphids or green plant lice.One species of ladybird which the California fruit growers brought from Australia has been the means of exterminating a scale insect very injurious to the orange and lemon trees of the Western coast. The larva of the ladybird turns into a hard encased pupa, and later into a full-grown ladybird insect.
The Ladybird is a little beetle about a third of an inch long. There are many species of ladybirds; they all are of the same general shape, somewhat like a split pea, but much smaller. They are usually of brilliant shiny colors with spots of contrasting colors: sometimes red with black spots; sometimes black withred or yellow spots, sometimes yellow with black spots. The young or larvæ of the ladybird are not in the least like their mothers. They are little black, rough, worm-like creatures with six legs, having reddish-yellow or rusty spots on their backs. Both the young and the parents are very helpful to the garden because they eat harmful insects—scale insects and aphids or green plant lice.
One species of ladybird which the California fruit growers brought from Australia has been the means of exterminating a scale insect very injurious to the orange and lemon trees of the Western coast. The larva of the ladybird turns into a hard encased pupa, and later into a full-grown ladybird insect.
“My,” exclaimed Mary Frances, “another garden friend! Why, Billy, one is never alone in the garden. There are always lots of friends about.”
“And enemies too,” said Billy. “Some time I’ll tell you about one of the silliest of enemies, which Professor Weed called an ‘animated honey drop’ or aphis.”
“Tell me now, Billy? Oh, do tell me now!”
“Not much! Not much! Some other time, Mary Frances. Do you think I’m an animated encyclopedia—always ready to deal out information, or do you think—? Oh, so long!”
Before Mary Frances could answer, Billy had disappeared.