202 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



nectarine, originally of Asiatic origin, are not less sub- 

 ject to the empire of insects than the homelier natives of 

 Europe. Certain Aphides form a convenient and shel- 

 tered habitation for themselves, by causing portions of 

 the leaves to rise into hollow red convexities ; in these 

 they reside, and, with their rostrum pumping out the 

 sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus deform 

 the tree and injure the produce. The fruit is attacked 

 by various other enemies of this class, against which we 

 find it not easy to secure it : wasps, earwigs, flies, wood- 

 lice, and ants, which last communicate to it a disacree- 

 able flavoui', all share with us these ambrosial treasures ; 

 the first of them as it were opening the door, by making 

 an incision in the rind, and letting in all the rest. — The 

 nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes inhabited by the 

 caterpillar of a moth, which devouring the kernel causes 

 the fruit to fall prematurely ^. — In this country, how- 

 ever, these fruits may be regarded as mere luxuries, and 

 therefore are of less consequence ; but in North Ame- 

 rica they constitute an important part of the general pro- 

 duce, at least the peach, serving both as food for swine, 

 and furnishing by distillation a useful spirit. The ra- 

 vages committed upon them there by insects are so se- 

 rious, that premiums have been offered for extirpating 

 them. A species of weevil, perhaps a Rynchites, enters 

 the fruit when unripe, probably laying its eggs within 

 the stone, and so destroys them. And two kinds of 

 Zygcena, by attacking the roots do a still greater injury 

 to the trees ^. — A Coccus, as it should seem from the 



^ M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478. 



^ Dr. Smith Barton's Letter in Philof;. Alngaz. xxii. 210. William 

 Davy, Esq. American Consul of the Port of Hull, lonj; resident in 

 the United States, informed me that though he had abundance of 

 peaches at his country-house, German Town near Philadelphia, he 



