72 APPLE LEAVES, APHIS LIONS — EGGS. 



pedicels, insomuch that botanists have in some instances actually 

 mistaken them for vegetable productions of this kink. 



Authors state that these eggs are deposited on leaves in clusters 

 of ten or a dozen. I have a small willow leaf, upon the mid- vein 

 of which, in a distance of one inch, twenty-three of these eggs 

 are implanted, with seven more in a row close by the side of these, 

 and five more in a second row, making thirty-five eggs in all, 

 which undoubtedly was the stock deposited by a single individual 

 in one night. But however it may be with the European Lace- 

 wings, certain it is that most of our American species of these 

 insects do not place their eggs in clusters, 'but singly, one or two 

 upon the edges or surface of the leaf. On a young apple tree in 

 my yard, about eight feet high, I found these eggs the first of July, 

 scattered over all the leaves. This tree had ten limbs, each about 

 three feet long, and inserted upon the leaves of one of these limbs 

 and its twigs I counted sixty-four eggs, and some probably escaped 

 my notice. There was thus at least six hundred eggs upon that one 

 small tree, all seeming to have been newly laid. And upon look- 

 ing about, I discovered these eggs upon every other fruit and for- 

 est tree in my yards, and also upon the fillets of cloth by which 

 newly set trees were tied to stakes for support, and two were even 

 found attached to the iron trimmings of the latch to my office 

 door. Being thus profusely scattered, it will readily be con- 

 ceived what an amount of benefit these insects render us. 



Having enjoyed favorable opportunities for inspecting the habits 

 of this family of insects, and having noticed several points in 

 their economy different from the observations which have hereto- 

 fore been recorded, I give their history somewhat in detail, be- 

 lieving I shall thus render a more valuable contribution to the 

 stores of human knowledge, than by occupying the same space 

 with brief and superficial notices of a number of dissimilar 

 insects. 



From the accounts usually given in books it would be inferred 

 that plant-lice were the exclusive food of the larvae of this family 

 of insects. It however is recorded that when in confinement and 

 pressed with hunger, they will devour each other, and Mr. Curtis 



