;'42 INSECTS AT HOME. 



from its neighbour by a space about equalling its own diameter. 

 These spots are, in fact, the little tubercles whose existence is 

 described as being detected by the pocket-lens. 



Many species of Frog-hopper inhabit England, but the two 

 which have been selected will serve as excellent examples. 



The next group of this remarkable order is that whicli is 

 named Dimera, or two-jointed, because the tarsus has only two 

 joints. The antennse are always slender and longer than the 

 head, and the winged individuals possess four wings, both jDairs 

 being of much the same texture. We will jiass at ouce to the 

 important family of Aphidse, or Plant-lice, sometimes known 

 under the popular name of G-reen Blight. 



One of the commonest of these most remarkable insects, the 

 Lime-Blight {Aphis tilice), is shown on Woodcut LXII. Figs. 3 

 and 4, the upper figure representing the female, and the lower 

 the male. 



The colour of the male is dull yellow, with a double row of 

 black dots down the back. In the wings the stigma, or spot, is 

 yellow, and all the nervures are yellowish-brown at the tips. 

 The female is simply yellow. Fig. b represents its rostrum, or 

 beak, and Fig. c the front of the head, all these figures being- 

 much magnified. The insect can be taken with the sweep-net 

 in long grass, which the male loves to frequent, while the 

 female is found on the lime-tree. 



Insignificant as may be a single Aphis, these insects are most 

 formidable from their numbers, as all gardeners know to their 

 cost. Eoses are often so thickly covered with these pestilential 

 insects that the leaves and buds are completely hidden, the 

 latter never being permitted to develope themselves into flowers. 

 Indeed, there is scarcely a plant that has not its Aphis, and 

 these extraordinary beings not only haunt the leaves and the 

 twigs of plants, but the roots and the fruit. Mr. Newman 

 remarks in his ' Letters of Eusticus ' : ' Plant-lice are every- 

 where. I have to-day (August 15, 1835) cut open codlin after 

 codlin, and found the pips garrisoned with them ; not one lonn 

 Aphis, but a whole troop of all sizes. When I let in the day- 

 light there was a considerable sprawling and waving of legs, 

 and no small alarm in the hive, but by degrees they got used to 

 light and fresh air, and were quite still. I tried to tickle them 



