N.S. ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Honey Dew. The various species of aphids throw off through their 

 anus, a sweet, sticky excretion called honey dew. This fluid is often given 

 off in such abundance as to render the surface of the food plant sticky. 

 It is attractive to ants, bees and wasps which feed upon it, and it also 

 forms a suitable sub-stratum for the development of certain fungi. 



The stem mothers are invariably wignless. The viviparous females 

 of the summer generation may be either winged or wingless. The males 

 and females may be either winged or wingless depending on the species, 

 and in some species both forms occur. Since the true females produce 

 eggs instead of living young they ar3 said to be oviparous females. 



The Green Apple Aphis. 



(Aphis pomi DeG.) 



The young of the green apple aphis as it hatches from the egg is a 

 small dark green insect about 1-32 in. long, more or less quadrangular in 

 shape but widening slightly toward the posterior extremity. Later it 

 becom> s a lighter green and somewhat pear shaped in form. These are 

 the stem mothers from which all future generations spring. The vivi- 

 parous females of the future generations resemble the stem mothers 

 closely in appearance, being more or less pear shaped and green or green- 

 ish yellow, about 1-15 in. long and about one-half as broad as long at the 

 widest part. The sexual females are about the same length as the vivi- 

 parous females but narrower and a bright yellowish color, sometimes 

 tinged with green. The male, likewise, is yellowish in color and much 

 smaller than the female. 

 Life History. 



The winter is passed in the egg state. The small, oval, black, shiny 

 eggs are frequently present in abundance upon the twigs. Speaking 

 generally, the hatching of the eggs coincides with the period at which 

 the leaves about the blossom clusters begin to show green. The writer, 

 however, has found aphids hatched before there was any sign of growth 

 and while thf snow was still on the ground. Others again have been found 

 to emerge within a very few days of the opening of the blossoms. Such 

 cases, however, may be regarded as exceptions. 



The winged forms, which compose one half or over, of the second 

 and third generations and a small proportion of succeeding generations, 

 spread the insects from tree to tree; but there is no alternate host, this 

 species spending its entire life upon the apple. 



As previously stated, all the summer generations are viviparous 

 females, but with the approach of cold weather in the fall, a sexual gen- 

 eration of true males and females is produced. The females greatly out- 

 number the males and one male has been observed to mate with several 

 females. Following mating, the female deposits her eggs upon the twigs. 



The maximum number of generations of the Green Apple Aphis. 



