Reports to varioiis Correspondents. 87 



tlie queen is dusky brown, with six rows of tubercles, the wliole body 

 beiu!4 dusted with meal and the apical portion covered with long white 

 Hocculent wool. These females commence to lay their eggs as early 

 as the first week in March and continue to do so until the middle 

 or end of April. I have even found them in May. 

 The eggs (Fig. 16) are deposited in groups, each 

 egg attached to the plant by a long pedich.;. As 

 many as sixty may be laid together, but more often 

 I have counted between twenty and tliirty ; the 

 colour varies from yellow to green, dusky green, 

 brown to black ; when eacli patch of eggs is finished 

 they are covered with a peculiar silky substance. Fig- 16.— eggs of 

 The female remains by these eggs until they hatch, (Q.^ufenitrged.) 

 wliich usually takes place towards the end of May 

 and in the early part of June. The larch leaves will then be seen 

 to be covered in places with small black moving specks ; these are 

 the lice, or young Chermcs. These lice wander about on the tender 

 needles ; they vary much in colour, for some are almost green in 

 line. They grow rapidly in warm weather and puncture the tender 

 needles and so let out the resinous sap. Very 

 often the presence of this pest is told by the 

 needles bending or elbowing where the lice have 

 been sucking, but this is not always so ; I have 

 frequently seen the needles perfectly straight 

 in spite of their repeated attacks. The lice can 

 also produce a white silky substance which 

 forms a covering to their bodies ; some years 

 this white wool is produced much more plenti- 

 fully than others. 



T{jwards the end of May a few lice have 

 changed to pupw (Fig. 17), nnd by the mi(UllH 

 of June most have done so. The pupal stage is 

 dark slaty-grey, with tubercles from which 

 numerous white threads appear. From the 

 beginning of June into August the pupa^ 

 give rise to imagines, which are all winged females — there Ijeing no 

 male known. This winged generation (Fig. 18) is not as in most 

 Aphides viviparous, but it is oviparous. The head and thorax are 

 dark brown, the eyes bright red ; the abdomen varies from orange to 

 brown, densely clothed with long white wavy fibres ; the wings are 

 large and greenish. These females lay eggs which they cover with 

 down and then die, their dried skins forming a covering over the ova. 



Fig. 17.-R0UGH sketch 

 OP A PUPA of Chertnes 

 laricis. 

 (Greatly enlarged,) 



