REPORT OP THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 37 



others before the end of the season, but it must necessarily very much 

 injure and weaken the tree to lose i*ts leaves before its natural season 

 for shedding them. Winged individuals of the Harris peach-tree plant- 

 louse are described as black, with the under sides of abdomen dull green ; 

 shanks and bases of thighs dull brownish, and the horns or honey-tubes 

 as long as the abdomen. Dr. Fitch considers it different from the 

 peach aphis of England. Colonel Wilkins, of Eiverside, near Chester- 

 town, Md., a very extensive peach-grower, last spring wrote to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture that an aphis or plant-louse similar to those 

 infesting his peach-tree leaves was at work on the roots also, and was 

 killing them by hundreds. Prof. P. ,R. Uhler, of the Peabody Library 

 in Baltimore, to whom Colonel Wilkins applied, visited the infested 

 peach-orchards, and found the statement to be perfectly correct, and 

 that an underground aphis or plant-louse, not differing from those on 

 the leaves, was doing immense injury to the young trees by sucking 

 out the sap; Professor Uhler also stated that both insects are different 

 from the ApMs jyersicce above mentioned, and probably is a new species, 

 closely allied to, if not identical with, the ApMs chrysanthemi of Europe. 

 The insects on both roots and leaves were about 0.08 in length, with the 

 contour of a broad Florence flask, of a blackish-brown color, and the 

 two varieties could not be distinguished from each other when placed 

 side by side. If these peach plant-lice work under ground on the roots, 

 would it not be advisable to saturate the earth around the trees with 

 hot whale-oil, or soft-soap suds, or dilute carbolic acid ? Tobacco or lime 

 water poured around the roots in spring as soon as the frost is out of the 

 ground might destroy the first broods and thus diminish their numbers. 

 Quassia chips, soaked in boiling water, have also been recommended, and 

 perhaps boiling water poured over the roots ia the spring might destroy 

 them, but might also injure the tree, although many farmers who have 

 tried the boiling- water process, as recommended for the peach-tree borer, 

 {JEgeria e'xitiosa,) a lepedopterous insect, have reported that the insects 

 were destroyed, while the trees remained uninjured. These experiments, 

 however, were tried in winter, when the trees were torpid. When in 

 greenhouses, plant-lice may be destroyed by tobacco smoke. Syringing 

 the plants with whale-oil, or soft-soap suds strong enough to kill the lice, 

 but not strong enough to injure the plants, is also recommended. Lime- 

 dust sprinkled over the plants in gardens is said to be beneficial j a solu- 

 tion of sal soda is also said to have been used with good effect, and Dr. 

 Packard recommends 30 parts of unrectified cheap petroleum mixed 

 with 100 parts of water to be sprinkled over the plants. As almost 

 every kind of i)lant has its own peculiar x)lant-louse — indeed, many 

 species of plant-lice are said to inhabit the same tree, and it is likewise 

 said that if these lice are transplanted to other kinds of plants they will 

 refuse to take nourishment and will die — it wUl be useless to enumerate 

 more than we have already mentioned, excepting to observe that almost 

 all plant-lice have very much the same habits, sucking the sap from 

 plants, shrubs, and trees, and living either above or under ground, and 

 the number of species cannot be known until a catalogue is made of 

 this genus alone. 



Laclmus carycv, or hickory aphis, is a large aphis found in clusters on 

 the under side of limbs of hickory, oak, and basswood and No. 40. 

 walnut, July and August, puncturing the bark and sucking 

 the sap. The insect is 0.25 in length ; to tips of the wing, 

 0.40 ; and across the wings, 0.72.. It is of a black color, 

 coated with a bluish-white powder. The thighs are of a^ 

 clear tawny red, and the wings are transparent. Dr. WalsK* 

 observed on the same tree numerous aoterous females, which- 



