392 



Handbook of Nature-Study 



THE APHIDS, OR PLANT-LICE 



Teacher's Story 



KNOW of no more diverting occupation than 

 watching a colony of aphids through a lens; 

 these insects are the most helpless and amiable 

 little ninnies in the whole insect world; and 

 they look the part, probably because their 

 eyes, so large and wide apart, seem so innocent 

 and wondering. The usual color of aphids is 

 green. As they feed upon leaves, this color 

 protects them from sight ; but there are many 

 species which are otherwise colored, and some 

 have most bizarre and striking ornamentations. 

 In looking along an infested leaf stalk, we see 

 them in all stages and positions. One may 



have thrust its beak to the hilt in a plant stem, and 

 is so satisfied and absorbed in sucking the juice that 

 its hind feet are lifted high in the air and its 

 antennae curved backward, making altogether a 

 gesture which seems an adequate expression of bliss ; 

 another may conclude to seek a new well, and pulls 

 up its sucking tube, folding it back underneath the 

 body so it will be out of the way, and walks off 

 slowly on its six rather stiff legs; when thus moving, 

 it thrusts the antennae forward, patting its pathway 

 to insure safety. Perhaps this pathway may lead 

 over other aphids which are feeding, but this does 

 not deter the traveler nor turn it aside; over the 

 backs of the obstructionists it 

 crawls, at which the disturbed 

 ones kick the intruder with both 

 hind legs; it is not a vicious 

 kick but a push rather, which 

 says, "This seat reserved, please !' 

 It is comical to see a row of them 

 sucking a plant stem for "dear life," the heads all 

 in the same direction, and they packed in and 

 around each other as if there were no other plants 

 in the world to give them room, the little ones 

 wedged in between the big ones, until sometimes 

 some of them are obliged to rest their hind legs on 

 the antennse of the neighbors next behind. 



Aphids are born for food for other creatures 

 they are simply little machines for making sap 

 into honey-dew, which they produce from the 

 alimentary canal for the delectation of ants; they 

 are, in fact, merely little animated drops of sap on 

 legs. How helpless they are when attacked by any 

 one of their many enemies ! All they do, when they 

 are seized, is to claw the air with their six impotent 

 legs and two antennae, keeping up this performance 



Perfect bliss! 



Aphids on plant. 

 Photo by Slingerland. 



