46 JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 9 



Passerini, under which name it had been described from the roots of 

 grass in Europe. 



It no doubt took some courage to announce that the well-known 

 dogwood aphid of Europe was the same insect as an equally well known 

 American aphid feeding on grass roots. It is not unlikely that this 

 discovery came with something the same shock to the investigator that 

 the identity of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde proved to people who had 

 known "both" these men. There was something incredible about 

 such a situation and a touch of timidity here and there in the paper 

 indicates the realization that the problem was a serious matter and 

 that the announced identity of three well-known aphids must not 

 only rest upon facts carefully investigated, but that the data must be 

 published with detail enough to carry the weight of conviction. There 

 was also something humorous about it all. The grass aphids were 

 rascals leading a dual life and at last brought to the bar of justice as 

 is indicated by the title "The grass-root plant-louse alias the dogwood 

 plant-louse." 



This piece of detective work, the first of its kind in America, coming 

 as it did when this type of life cycle had not long been recognized 

 as a possibility for the plant-lice, and presented in a manner to put 

 the reader in as nearly first-hand connection with the facts as possible, 

 merits a place in the first rank of aphid investigations of this country. 



Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the publication 

 is the way it has been received by American entomologists. In 1894^ 

 appeared the following guarded statement concerning Schizoneura 

 panicola: "This root louse has been identified ... as an alternate 

 form with a species of the same genus, S. corni Fabr., from the leaves 

 of the dogwood (U. S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Entomol- 

 ogy, Bull. No. 22, p. 40) ; but from all available evidence I am not yet 

 satisfied that the species here described as S. panicola ever leaves the 

 ground except to fly from the roots of one food plant to those of 

 another." 



In 1910^ a second entomologist wrote of S. panicola: "Common on 

 roots of Panicum. ... It has still to be proven that this is 

 identical with S. corni." 



And in 1915^ under the caption of Ana:cia corni Fabricius, a third 

 writes: "The lice completely desert the dogwood early in the summer 

 and go to unknown plants." 



1 1894. 18 Rept. St. Ent. lU., pp. 85-93. The Grass-Root Louse. 



2 1910. Journal of Ec. Ent., Vol. 3, p. 413. List of the Aphidida? of IlUnois, 

 with notes on some of the species. 



^ 1915. Journal of Ec. Ent., Vol. S, p. 100. Notes on some Colorado Aphids 

 having alternate food habits. 



