PLANT LICE. as 
FAMILY APHIDIDAE. 
(Plant Lice). 
Every lover of plants, whether he grows only a few gera- 
niums in his window, or possesses a garden in which to grow 
his vegetables, whether he grows plants of all kinds for the 
market, or is a farmer who cultivates very extensive fields for 
crops, must often have noticed plant-lice upon the leaves, stems, 
or even on the roots of the plants he is growing. Here these 
small, soft-bodied insects, with long legs and feelers, are seen 
in crowds, steadily engaged in pumping the sap through their 
thread-like beaks. Plant lice are not the friends of the farmer, 
gardener, or horticulturist, and to obtain some results from their 
labor the latter have in some cases to continuously fight the in- 
truders. , 
There are a great many species of plant lice, the largest 
measuring less than one quarter of an inch, while the great ma- 
jority are very much smaller. Up to very recent times these 
insects have not received the attention of the entomologist as 
much as they deserve, and the life-history of very many species 
is still shrouded in mystery, and no wonder, for they have a most 
peculiar life-history, quite different from that of all other in- 
sects. 
Of late such men as Comstock, Howard, Smith, Webster, 
Forbes, Oestlund, Pergande and a host of others have tried to 
solve the numerous riddles their various forms, curious habits, 
and strange development have presented, and gradually we com- 
mence to understand this family very much better than in the 
past. 
Prof. Comstock, in “An Introduction to Entomology,” has 
given such a comprehensive and thorough account of these insects 
that it is quoted in full. 
“The body is usually more or less pear-shaped. The winged 
forms have two pairs of delicate, transparent wings. These are 
furnished with a few simple veins; but the venation is more 
extended than in either of the two following families. The first 
pair of wings is larger than the other; and the two wings of 
each side are usually connected by a compound hooklet. The 
