CABBAGE APHIS. 11 
Horticultural School at Holmes Chapel. Of these, Mr. Fraser 
wrote :— 
‘“‘T should feel much obliged if you could give me any information 
about the enclosed ‘Aphis’ on the Cabbages. The last two or three 
days have been sultry and close, and the Aphis have increased wonder- 
fully. Where one Cabbage was attacked two days ago, a dozen all 
round it are attacked now. They cover the leaves completely in some 
cases, and render them white, thus checking growth, and nearly 
killing the plant; the very luxuriant ones are not attacked. The 
piece of land worst infested is where we had some Potato-pits last 
winter.” —(S. F.) 
The specimens sent me covered the Cabbage leaf almost solidly for 
a space of about six inches in Jength, up to as much as one and a half 
in breadth, and the aphides were packed together, even to being one 
on the other, besides more scattered presence of attack ranging up to 
about seven inches in length by four in breadth. 
The youngest aphides were yellowish in colour; the older speci- 
mens, in the condition answering to the pupal state (of which there was 
the largest proportion), were dull or dirty greenish, much corrugated 
across, and with black or grey-black wing-cases. The females were 
green in the abdomen; head and most of the body between the wings 
black. Very few winged females were present when the specimens 
reached me, but on opening the box, where I had put them aside, a 
few days afterwards, the great number of winged females which had 
developed was very observable. 
This species is the same as the A. floris rape, of Curtis, of which 
he remarks (‘ Farm Insects,’ p. 70) that it ‘‘is readily distinguishable 
by its white dusty appearance, with which both sexes are thinly 
coated,” and the white dusty appearance was very noticeable in the 
masses of specimens sent me. 
In the hollow formed by the central vein of the Cabbage leaf there 
were balls of a white formation, which, on examination with a mag- 
nifier, proved to be globules of moisture, apparently exuded by the 
aphides, and covered with white powder from their own mealy coating, 
which prevented the drops running together. On crushing some of 
the drops on a piece of blotting-paper, the moisture spread about on 
the paper, and the white mealy deposit was in sufficient quantity to 
remain noticeably on the surface. 
The description of the wingless female* is :—‘‘ Body long oval, 
plentifully covered with a mealy coat, both on the upper and under 
sides. When this is removed by a drop of spirits of wine, the body 
below is greyish green, with eight black spots ranged down each side 
of the back, which increase in size as they approach the tail. Antenne 
* See ‘ Monograph of British Aphides,’ by G. B. Buckton, F.R.S., vol. ii. p. 34. 
