LARCH APHIS. 221 



the latter by reason of the larger proportion of the tree liable 

 to attack. 



The Cherines laricis never produces living young ; it propa- 

 gates entirely by eggs, and when the Larch leaves are beginning 

 to appear in the spring, the mother Chermes may be seen at 

 the base of the leaf-knots along the Larch twigs, laying the 

 eggs which will give rise to the successive generations of the 

 year. These eggs are oval, and furnished with a kind of hair- 

 like stalk ; of a yellow or yellowish purple colour at first, 

 which deepens in tint towards hatching-time to a dark violet. 

 They are laid slowly (sometimes at the rate of about five a 

 day), and more or less covered up with a kind of powdery 

 down removed off herself by the mother, and gradually are 

 piled round and over her till she is half-buried in them, and 

 in hardening drops of turpentine which she constantly exudes 

 with a kind of pumping motion. 



This female, the mother of the colony, is of the shape 

 figured (p. 220), greatly magnified ; wingless, with short legs, 

 and a strong sucker ; dusky violet in colour, becoming darker 

 with age, and more or less covered with a white powdery or 

 cottony secretion. The legs and sucker are dark, or black. 



The young soon hatch ; eggs may be found in the south of 

 England in course of laying on the 22nd of April, and twigs 

 swarming with young at the beginning of May. These are of 

 the shape figured opposite, with distinctly formed head and 

 horns ; trunk (or thorax) with six legs, and abdomen : at 

 first they are of a powdery black, or violet, with several rows 

 of tubercles along the abdomen, and (though not showing as 

 clearly) also along the trunk ; afterwards they change "to an 

 olive-yellow or clear olive-green, with horns, legs, and sucker, 

 darker olive-green or olive-brown." — (C. L. K.) These dis- 

 perse themselves over the leaves, and, piercing into them with 

 their suckers, begin the work of mischief, and the infested 

 shoots may be known by the Chermes scattered over the 

 leafage, like little black or darkish specks bearing bunches of 

 white down. Later on— about the middle of May — fully 

 developed winged as well as wingless specimens may be seen : 

 the winged females of the shape figured, of a yellowish tint, 

 with brown head and horns, and various brown markings ; 

 and with wing-veins of a yellowish green. The reader is 

 requested to notice that the long vein forked at the end, 

 placed at the fore edge of the upper wing, has only two side 

 veins from it : this veining of the wings is characteristic of 

 the tribe Chermisince, and distinguishes it from the three other 

 tribes of the Aphidida (for details of wings, see " Aphides" in 

 Index). 



The Chermes-attack continues, or may continue, unless 



