THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Aphis \vhich particularly infests the blossoms of Cuaxrbita ovifera^ I had 

 the happy satisfaction of being a witness of a phenomenon which 

 promised to solve the knotty problem. After a few moments of calm and 

 deliberate reflection upon what I observed, the entire theory, the 

 details of which I am about to delineate, became almost intuitively 

 outlined upon my mind. 



Feeding upon the flowers of this plant were hundreds of lice, the 

 groupings of which not ev^en a careless and hasty observer could fail to 

 detect. There, like the patriarchal tribes we read about, were observable 

 group after group, each composed of a head and a family of children of 

 diverse ages and sizes. In the arrangement the young and newly-born, as 

 if retjuiring the first care and earliest attention of the mother, were closely 

 in her rear, the proximity to her presence in the case of the residue being 

 apparently determined by their age. 



While intently scrutinizing the actions of the various groups, one little 

 fellow was observed to caress its parent by means of its antennce, as if 

 soliciting the bestowal of a favor. After the lapse of some few seconds 

 the mother, acting in obedience to the child's wishes as thus expressed, 

 slowly elevated the posterior part of her abdomen and ejected a honey 

 drop upon the head of the latter, apparently to its infinite delight and 

 satisfaction. It is my honest opinion, evidenced by repeated observations, 

 that it is only during the first two days of the life of the offspring that 

 this process of feeding is necessary, the digestive organs at this period 

 being too feeble and delicate to partake of the strong juice of the flower 

 without the entailment of injury. But after undergoing remarkable 

 changes in the alimentary laboratory it becomes deprived of its injurious 

 properties and rendered fit for the sustenance of life. 



In conjunction with the previous discovery I remarked that the older 

 and stronger seldom, if ever, deviated from the path over which their 

 maternal head had passed, but seemed to find their chief good attained 

 by following closely therein. It seems just to conclude that this would 

 not be if they Avere amply qualified to look after their own temporal 

 welfare ; but on the ground that parental provision and attention are still 

 indispensable, the reason is obvious. 



Plant lice being vigorous feeders, the manufacture and excretion of 

 this fluid would necessarily be very great and profuse, and as nature does 

 not work in vain, it might be argued that it is a sort of compensation 

 which the insect lavishes upon the plant for the losses which it 



