208 VARir.TIKS. '' 



7. The Aphis of the Coivslip. 



" Now in the cowslip's dewy cell 

 The ylphis makes its bed." 



It begins in March to spread itself over the calyxes of the 

 cowslips ; it then appears like a green speck, sprinkled with 

 white powder, and has tribes of little spring-tails and ticklers^ 

 skipping around it. In the course of a month it becomes 

 wonderfully populous, and varies from half a line to a line and 

 a half in length, — and to one with wings on its back are fifty 

 without. The young one is dingy green, oval convex, formed 

 of transverse parallel segments, the antennae paler and longer 

 than the body, tipped with brown from the third to the sixth 

 joint, the seventh all brown, the eyes dark brown, the mouth 

 and horns of the abdomen with brown tips, the legs short and 

 thick. As it advances in life it becomes darker, its antennae 

 and legs are longer and more tapering, and some of the thoracic 

 segments develope and bear wings or the rudiments thereof. 

 The wings are almost colourless, the costa pale green, and the 

 nervures brown. When it arrives at perfection the thorax 

 is often spotted with black, and the potent juice of the cowslip 

 gives it a jolly and rosy appearance. It does not inhabit — 



" pale primroses, 



That die unmarried, ere they can behold 

 Bright Phoebus in his strength." 



Their insipidity is not agreeable to its taste, nor their hairy 

 leaves to its skin. When the summer comes the cowslips fade 

 and wither away, and the Aphis is seen no more; or its only 

 vestiges are, some bleaching skeletons amidst a tangled mat of 

 spiders' webs. Tot. 



8. Pieris Cratesgi. Yesterday this butterfly was so abun- 

 dant at Oldenbarn, that I took nearly thirty specimens with 

 my fingers, from the blossoms of ChrijsatHhemum Leucan- 

 thermim, on which they settled. 



Leominster, July 24, 1835. HeNRY NeWMAN. 



" Smynthunis and Thiips. — Ed. 



