IDS BRITISH APHIDES. 



Yelvety-black, with tlie first tliree abdominal and 

 also tlie apical rings ferruginous. Eyes dark-brown. 

 Antennae, legs, and apex of abdomen hairy. Antennse 

 much tuberculate. Rostrum reaches to the third coxas. 

 Wings with a smoky membrane, and covered by 

 minute punctures. Cubitus strong, with yellow 

 insertions, and ending in a large brown stigma, the 

 fore border of which has a black internal rhomboidal 

 spot. Other veins black; the cubital vein does not 

 quite reach the cubitus. 



Koch gave the name Sch. vagans to this species, 

 from the wandering habits of the winged form. Riley 

 describes an American Aphis with the same habit 

 under the name of Pemphigus vagahundus. 



In the autumn the English insect may be found 

 mixed with Aphides of other kinds on a variety of 

 trees. I have taken them on the medlar, the honey- 

 suckle, the plum tree, and the oak. Late in Novem- 

 ber the winged females continue full of embryos, most 

 of which would appear to be dropped on plants unsuited 

 for the food of the young Aphis. Professor Riley 

 draws a parallel between the profuse dispersion of 

 seeds into sterile places and the apparently aimless 

 deposits of young by many of these insects,* 



When the food plant is in abundance the insect is 

 much spread in proportion, and this abundance has 

 been thought to explain the myriads of Phylloxera 

 vastatrix which now devastate the vines of France and 

 Italy. 



I cannot see either in Koch's diagnosis or his 

 figures any sufficient reason for separating Sch. corni 

 from this genus, for I believe, with Passerini and 

 Lichtenstein, that Sch. vagans is really Hausman's Sch. 

 corni, and therefore I place it as a synonym. Thus 

 Koch's new genus, Anhoeciai to me seems to be unne- 

 cessary. ^ 



M. Lichtenstein, with his usual liberality, sent me 



* Vide ' Notes on the Apliididse of the United States,' Riley and 

 Monell, Washington, Jan., 1879. 



