EBEREARTH OUTLINES OF 



THE APPLE APHIS. 



{Aphis mail. Fabr.) 



"During the winter," says Saunders, "There may often 

 be found in crevices and cracks of the bark of the twigs of 

 the apple tree, and also about the base of the buds, a num- 

 ber of very minute, oval, shining black eggs. These are 

 the eggs of the apple tree aphis, Aphis mali. They 

 are deposited in the autumn, and when first laid are 

 of a light yellow or green color, but gradually become 

 darker, and finally black. 



As soon as the buds begin to expand in the spring, these 

 eggs hatch into tiny lice, which locate themselves upon the 

 swelling buds and the small, tender leaves, and inserting 

 their beaks feed on the juices. All the lice thus hatched 

 at this period of the year are females, and reach maturity 

 in ten or twelve days, when they commence to give birth to 

 living young, producing about two daily for two or three 

 weeks, after which the older ones die. The young locate 

 about the parents as closely as they can stow themselves, 

 and they also mature and become mothers in ten or twelve 

 days, and are as prolific as their predecessors. They thus 

 increase so rapidly that as fast as new leaves expand, colo- 

 nies are ready to occupy them. As the season advances, 

 some of the females acquire wings, and, dispersing, found 

 new colonies on other trees. When cold weather approaches, 

 males as well as females are produced, and the season closes 

 with the deposit of a stock of eggs for the continuance of 

 the species for another year. When newly born the Apple 

 Aphis is almost white, but soon becomes of a pale, dull 

 greenish -yellow. The mature females are generally with- 

 out wings; their bodies are oval in form, less than one- 

 tenth of an inch long, of a pale yellowish-green color, often 



