The following account of the habits of these beneficent creatures, principally in the above connection, is given by Mr. Buckton, a profound student of insect life-histories: “The food of Coccinella (the ladybird) consists almost exclusively of Aphides. Their marvellous voracity is shown equally in their larval and their winged condition. The former stage may be commonly seen throughout early summer as slaty-grey or brown six-footed creatures, covered with tufted tubercles, and provided with mandibles efficient both for holding and sucking out the juices of their victims. In some years the imagos (or grown insects) are wonderfully numerous, and when they take wing form vast swarms which travel great distances. In the year 1869 such a cloud passed over a large part of Kent, Sussex, and Surrey,” and their effect (of the same genial nature as that of Bacchus wandering through the earth) was soon seen in the good hop crop of the following year. “Although the Coccinella is not restricted to the Hop Aphis for its food, it frequently follows its migrations, and travels on the same winds. Whilst feeding, the Aphis is held and manipulated by the jaws or palpi of the Coccinella, and the devouring operation proceeds amidst the struggles of the victims from the apex of the abdomen to the thorax, which parts, together with the head and legs, are finally rejected.”[43] This process—which is by no means confined to insect life, but extends upwards from it even into the highly organised mammalia—does not seem to be a pleasant one to witness, for Mr. Buckton remarks upon it: “We may express some hope, in sympathy with the Aphis, that the automatic theory of animal life may here find some place, and that reflex action may explain the fact that, under the microscope, the mutilated remains of the Aphis, without stomach and without internal organs, have been seen to walk away and live after the operation for a considerable time! Automatically the Coccinella furbishes up its jaws and antennæ in readiness for another meal. From thirty to forty Aphides may thus be consumed in one hour.”[43]