C> APPr.F.. 



Apple-suckers, or Chermes. Psylla mali, Schmidberger. 



PSYLLA MALI ; pUpa Of P. PYRI. 



Apple-suckers, from life, with wings expanded, and also raised as in the act of 

 taking flight ; nat. length one-twelfth of an inch. Pupa of Pear-sucker, mag., after 

 Prof. W. Saunders. 



During the summer of 1890, the little Apple Psyllas, or Chermes, 

 were so thoroughly observed, and their life-history recorded in the 

 observations of Mr. W. F. Gibbon, of Seaford Grange, near Pershore, 

 and those of Mr. J. Hiam, of Astwood Bank, near Kedditch, that there 

 seems little need to say anything more on this subject. But in the 

 past season, early in the year, Mr, Hiam found that the damage 

 which the P.sijllas were doing to his trusses of Apple blossom was 

 so exceedingly great that he arranged a simple form of apparatus, 

 by which he was able to capture the insects so successfully by 

 hundreds, on an adhesive surface, that I give a short note of his 

 method of operation. 



The Apple Psyllas or Apple-suckers are very minute insects, of tlie 

 shape figured above, only about the twelfth of an inch long. The 

 general colour during most of their lives is Apple-green, but is varied 

 in the mature insect in autumn with different tints, especially of red; 

 in the words of Mr. W. F. Gibbon, " some red from head to tail, some 

 only red about the head and shoulders, some quite green, and some 

 milky-white." At this time the minute white or yellowish eggs, 

 which are somewhat spindle-shaped or sometimes blunter at the 

 extremity, are laid in furrows, or hollows, or on the down or slightly 

 woolly growth near the extremity of the Apple twigs. From these 

 eggs the yomig Psyllas hatch in the following spring. These are in 

 shape much like their parents, excepting that in their early stage 

 they are wingless. 



These little Apple-suckers, where numerous, do great mischief by 

 sucking away the juices of the young Apple buds, or stalks of the 

 blossoms, or blossom buds. 



Early in the past season (1890), Mr. Hiam sent me information of 

 the damage which the Pi/sUas were doing in his orchard, by weakening 



