22 



NOTES ON THE GREEN SPRUCE APHIS 

 {APHIS ABIETINA WALKER). 



By FRED. V. THEOBALD, M.A., etc. 



During 1913 a very severe attack of the aphis described by Walker 

 in 1849 as Aphis abietina took place on spruce trees of various kinds. 

 This aphis I have found in considerable numbers in the south of England 

 for many years, but I have never known it until the summer of 1913 

 to do any serious harm. 



Since Walker's original account given in the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History'^, the only references I know of it are those given by 

 Buckton in his Monograph of British Aphides'^ in 1877 and in Gillander's 

 Forest Entojnologij in 1908^. I have also recorded it from Worksop* 

 in 1910 and from Kent in 1911^. P. Van der Goot^ places this in his 

 new genus Myzaphis. I have known however of this insect since 1889 

 when it was abundant on the Norway spruce at Kingston-on-Thames, 

 and on some of the spruce trees in Richmond Park. 



I can find no reference to this spruce aphis on the Continent, but I 

 remember finding it near Odde in Norway in 1891. 



Like most aphides it is of erratic appearance. Districts in which it 

 is quite common one year, may suddenly become comparatively free 

 from it. Then after a lapse of time it may occur again in quantity. 

 The only years in which actual damage has been noticed however are 

 1846 and 1913. 



It is quite possible that the damage caused by it on other occasions 

 may have been put down to other causes, such as unsuitable soil, drought, 

 etc. 



' Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist, m, Ser. 2, pp. 301-302. 



- Mono. Brit. Aph. ii, p. 43, pi. xlix, fif;;s. 3 and 4 



■' Forest Entomology, p. 304. 



■» Rept. Eco. Zool. for year ending Sop. 1911. p. 132. 



•'■' The Entomologist, xuv, p. 398 (1911). 



« Tijdschrift v. Ent. lvi, p. 96 (1913). 



