April, '11] murtfeldt: honeysuckle aphis 227 



found on cane. Although put down as. second-rate pests, a careful 

 investigation would reveal the fact that they are not altogether to be 

 neglected. 



HABITS OF THE HONEYSUCKLE APHIS, RHOPALOSIPHUM 



XYLOSTEI 



By Mary E. Murtfeldt, Kirkwood, Mo. 



No species of aphis with which I have had experience — except, 

 perhaps, the Grape Phylloxera on non-resistant varieties — has been 

 found so persistently destructive and so almost impossible of control 

 as the one named above. This appeared ten or twelve years ago in 

 the gardens in and around St. Louis and on the wild vines growing in the 

 open woods along the Merame river. It does not attack all varieties 

 of these twining shrubs, but seems to find in the structure of the Sweet 

 Dutch and Italian, as well as in that of the native Coral or Trumpet 

 species, Lonicera sempervirens, also in cultivation everywhere — just 

 the conditions suited to its development. The peculiarity of these 

 species is that they bloom only on the tips of the new shoots, 

 the blossom clusters being subtended and at first closely enfolded by 

 a pair of bract-like leaves. Now, as the aphis colonies feed and multiply 

 only on the flower buds and blossoms throughout the spring and early 

 autumn, these bracts afford them shelter and concealment and their 

 innumerable punctures cause the leafy valves to close more and more 

 tightly over them and over the retarded buds, so that they are in a 

 great measure protected from parasitic and predaceous insect foes 

 and also from all dustings and sprayings with insecticides, unless these 

 are applied with great force. Even smoking with tob&cco stems under 

 a large dry-goods box or under a canvas tent failed to suffocate 

 them. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain this aphis hibernates in the 

 agamic, "stem-mother" form, concealed under leaf buds or protected 

 by such scanty, withered foliage as remains on the vines. But I must 

 confess that assiduous search has brought to notice but few of these. 

 A very few eggs have also been found, late in autumn, generally in 

 pairs on the tips of leaf buds. They are scarcely visible to the unaided 

 eye, being not more than 0.2mm. in length, of oblong form, brownish 

 black color and, so far as could be revealed under a strong lens, with a 

 smooth surface. I have not been able to differentiate the sexes, not 

 having made microscopic studies of the forms, but infer that true 

 males and females are developed in small numbers late in the season 

 as the eggs would indicate. 



