LACHNUS VIMINALIS. 55 



sessed by the apterous female. Cornicles olotuse and 

 very obvious. Rostrum reaches scarcely beyond the 

 third coxse. Wings very long, and mostly carried 

 horizontally when at rest, instead of pent-wise. 

 Membrane rather coarse and hardly iridescent ; inser- 

 tions and cubitus orange-yellow ; stigma very long, 

 narrow, and brownish black. Veins fine and pale 

 brown; first and second furcal nervures, soon after their 

 origin, run nearly parallel. Costal nerve of the under 

 wing nearly straight. Hind legs very long; all the 

 tibife ochreous red ; tarsi distinctly biarticulate. 



This Aphis, when' crushed, yields a deep port-wine 

 red stain, which is intensified by the action of an alkali. 



I have no doubt that this insect is AioMs saligna of 

 Walker, although he omits to notice the characteristic 

 dorsal tubercle, or rather he calls it a large black spot, 

 between the nectaries. Passerini remarks that Walker 

 has erroneously written Aphis saligna, Sulz., for A. 

 salicis, Sulz., and that the last Aphis is a species 

 " omuino aliena." 



Shaw, many years ago, in his ' General Zoology,' 

 mentions, amongst others. Aphis salicis, and refers to 

 Curtis' s paper on Aphis in the sixth volume of the 

 'Linnsean Trans.,' where the insect is described as 

 " nearly a quarter of an inch large, and one of the 

 largest species," feeding on willow bark and not on the 

 leaves. " Towards the end of September," he says, 

 " multitudes of the full-grown insects, winged and 

 otherwise, desert the willows on which they feed, and 

 ramble over every neighbouring object in such a 

 manner, that we can handle nothing in their vicinity 

 without crushing some of them. Younger individuals 

 still remain in large masses on the trees." He says 

 they are yellowish grey, spotted with black, and that 

 they stain the fingers red. 



Sugar must have been difiicult to procure in his day, 

 we may suppose; for William Curtis says, "their secre- 

 tion might be gathered and, by purification, converted 

 into the choicest sugar or sugar-candy." Though 



