30 BRITISH APHIDES. 



disclosed they are of a milky white, but they speedily 

 become hyaline, with a delicate greenish glance. 

 Cubitus green and stout, the apex expanding into a 

 large green stigma. The three oblique veins usually 

 stop short of the cubitus. Lower wings with a single 

 vein proceeding at right angles from the post-cubital. 

 The membranes are finely punctured. The wings are 

 folded horizontally ; that is to say, not pentwise. 



This insect is numerous in many English counties. 

 It also has a wide Continental distribution, reaching as 

 far south as Parma, in Italy. 



The winged Chermes begins plentifully to issue 

 from the cones in early June, and if the season be 

 late, they continue their flight even to August. 



They may be found, later in the year, sitting at the 

 apices of the leaves in the process of oviposition ; the 

 eggs being afterwards covered by flocks of woolly 

 matter. Still later in the year the young may be 

 discovered creeping from the dead body of the mother ; 

 her body having answered, for the time, for their 

 temporary concealment. 



The later-born winged females are only half the 

 size of the ordinary insect, they are browner or greener 

 than those of the early summer, and their abdomens 

 are less developed. These probably are the supposed 

 winged males, described by Koch. It is more possible 

 that they develop the real sexes; and the mothers 

 thus would be styled pupiferce by Lichtenstein. I 

 think this the more likely, since their abdomens are 

 largely charged by green germinal matter, and when 

 they are crushed a multitude of minute spore-like 

 bodies are liberated, which simulate spermatozoa. 



In the family of Aphides the organs destined for 

 reproduction commence their growth at a very early 

 stage. The rudiments may be sometimes traced in the 

 young of Chermes abietis soon after their exclusion 

 from the egg. It is well known that the sexual appa- 

 ratus is in formation some time before the construction 

 of the principal external parts of the Aphis. The 



