166 DESTRUCTIVE INSECTS OF VICTORIA: 



illustrations, of tliis pest, and as this gentleman has 

 presented the volume in which the article appears to me, 

 I am able to quote freely from it with mutual advantage, 

 I hope, to myself as well as to growers. 



" The aphis, although active in feeding — and more 

 voracious in its way hardly could creature ])e — is in every 

 other respect singularly torpid. In the feeding state it 

 scarcely moves from the leaf on which it was hatched, 

 but only crawls slowly forward to a new position when it 

 has exhausted the nutriment from the place on which it 

 stood. It thrusts its rostrum or beak into the leaf, pene- 

 trating the skin, and then sucks away the juices until 

 none remain. It is careless alike of enemies and the 

 change of weather. There it feeds unawed by the fate 

 of its companions, and regardless alike of sunshine, storm, 

 or predatory foes. 



"Its body is soft and unprotected, and, so far from 

 making any nest, it does not even seek the natural shelter 

 which the leaves might afford. An aphis will almost 

 submit to destruction rather than desist from eating. We 

 attempted to dislodge one with a fine hair pencil while so 

 engaged, but it merely wriggled and slewed round upon 

 its rostrum as upon a pivot, to get its body out of the 

 way, and continued sucking in sullen perseverance. The 

 larva when hatched from the egg by warmth of spring, 

 soon attains its full size, and passes without change 

 of form into the pupa stage (see Fig. 4), which is 

 the pupa of a winged female. It is then viviparous, 

 and produces within a few days of its birth six or 

 eight small insects like itself. This process is repeated 

 through the summer, until at the close of the season, 

 the last generation assumes the image or perfect state 

 with wings. 



" Up to this time all the aphides have been productive 

 females, only attaining the pupa state ; but the winged 

 insects are of both sexes, and only appear at long intervals, 

 usually from nine to eleven generations ; but the pupse 

 have been preserved for a still longer time without the 

 change taking place. This peculiar mode of propagation 



