APHIS. 107 



Capulets ! Some had heaved anchor and dropped from the 

 pip ; others fixed more firmly had died at their post, and 

 tucking their legs together under them, hung by their 

 beak. In no apple was there any road in or out ; there 

 was no chance of their passing to the outer air, or of their 

 having come from it ; indeed their speedy death proved 

 that change of air did not agree with them. I was parti- 

 cularly careful in my search for a via, but there was none. 

 I have often seen the same thing in a bloated poplar-leaf; 

 but here is a possibility of the egg being laid between the 

 cuticles of the leaf, then, the sap -suction commencing, the 

 bloat may be caused ; but this is impossible in a huge ap- 

 ple, with an inch and a half of pulp in every direction. I 

 am unable to explain the mystery ; so, like many other 

 wiseacres, I content myself with wondering how, in the 

 name of fortune, the Aphides got there ! 



Another odd station for Aphides is on the roots of plants. 

 I have found them by hundreds on a thistle-root, closely 

 packed together, and almost as white as snow. The 

 other day I pulled up a large thistle that grew on an ant- 

 hill, and thus I brought to light a whole colony of these 

 white Aphides. I had long known of the great value which 

 ants set on these little beasts, so I shook down some do- 

 zens of them from the thistle-root, among the ants, which 

 were all a-swarm at the damage I had done to their dwel- 

 ling. No sooner were the ants aware of the presence of 

 the Aphides than they began to fondle them with their legs 

 sometimes positively taking them round the neck to 

 tap them on the back with their antennae, and to lick them 

 with their tongues ; they then took hold of them with their 

 jaws, and lifted them from the ground, and earned them 

 with the greatest care, one by one, into the recesses of the 



