THE CABBAGE APHIS. ' 165 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



THE CABBAGE APHIS. 



{Aphis brassicce. Linn.) 



Order : Hemiptera. vSiib-order : Homoptera. Family : Aphididce. 



The Cabbage Aphis, better known as Cabbage Blight, 

 is unfortunately too well known to need any lengthy de- 

 scription here ; and, as has been done all along, and will 

 be continued to the end of the book, we rely more upon 

 the plates with which the parts are illustrated than on 

 lengthy descriptions, which in illustrated works of this 

 kind would seem hardly necessary. 



This pest, which has existed in Victoria since the very 

 early days of the colony, is undoubtedly an importation 

 from Europe ; but how and by what means it has been 

 introduced here, I, of course, cannot say. It may have 

 reached us through the agency of some plants which 

 were so commonly imported in Wardian-cases (boxes 

 covered with glass), in which plants of many kinds 

 were sent from England and elsewhere in a growing 

 condition. 



At Fig. 3 we show an enlarged drawing of a wingless 

 female, which in many cases is covered with a mealy coat 

 very much after the manner of the woolly-blight of the 

 apple, the cornicles being, as shown on plate, short and 

 nearly black. Our Fig. 2 represents a winged male, highly 

 magnified, whilst the insects m their earlier stages are 

 shown as per explanation. 



The body of the insect is usually green, but varies in 

 shade to a bluish green, often nearly grey. 



In the year 1857 Mr. Sydney Gibbons, of this city, 

 published a very interesting and well-written article, with 



