Except little Nan, who sits in her pan,
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can.[20]
Or, as most commonly with us in America,—
Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, and your children all burn.
The meaning of this familiar, though very curious couplet, seems to be this: the larvæ, or young, of the Lady-bird feed principally upon the aphides, or plant-lice, of the vines of the hop; and fire is the usual means employed in destroying the aphides; so that in killing the latter, the former, which had come for the same purpose, are likewise destroyed.
Immense swarms of Lady-birds are sometimes observed in England, especially on the southeastern coast. They have been described as extending in dense masses for miles, and consisting of several species intermixed.[21] In 1807, these flights in Kent and Sussex caused no small alarm to the superstitious, who thought them the forerunners of some direful evil. They were, however, but emigrants from the neighboring hop-grounds, where, in their larva state, they had been feasting upon the aphides.[22]
The Lady-bird was formerly considered an efficacious remedy for the colic and measles;[23] and it has been recommended often as a cure for the toothache: being said, when one or two are mashed and put into the hollow tooth, to immediately relieve the pain. Jaeger says he has tried this application in two instances with success.[24]
In the northern part of South America—the Spanish Main—a species of Lady-bug, Captain Stuart tells me, is extensively worn as jewels and ornaments. He may, however, refer to some species of the Gold-beetles—Chrysomelidæ, next mentioned.
Hurdis, who has frequently, in his Poems, availed himself of the modern discoveries in Natural History, has