THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY 



[SECOPA) SERIES.] 

 No. 80. AUGUST 1854. 



VII. — Researches on the Development of Viviparous Aphides. 

 By Waldo I. Burnett, M.D., Boston*. 



Every naturalist is aware of the remarkable phsenomena con- 

 nected with tbe viviparous reproduction of Aphides or plant-lice, 

 for their singularity has led them to be recounted in works other 

 than those of natural science, and, from the days of the earlier 

 observers, they have been the theme of a kind of wonder-story 

 in zoology and physiology. 



I need not here go over the historical relations of this subject. 

 The queer experiments and the amusing writings of the old ento- 

 mologists are well known. The brief history of the general con- 

 ditions of the development of these insects is as follows : — In the 

 early autumn the colonies of plant-lice are composed of both male 

 and female individuals; these pair, the males then die, and the 

 females soon begin to deposit their eggs, after which they die also. 

 Early in the ensiling spring, as soon as the sap begins to flow, 

 these eggs are hatched, and the young lice immediately begin to 

 pump up sap from the tender leaves and shoots, increase rapidly 

 in size, and in a short time come to maturity. In this state it is 

 found that the whole brood, without a single exception, consists 

 solely of females, or rather and more properly, of individuals 

 which are capable of reproducing their kind. This reproduction 

 takes place by a viviparous generation, there being formed in the 

 individuals in question young lice, which, when capable of enter- 

 ing upon individual life, escape from their progenitor and form a 

 new and greatly increased colony. This second generation pur- 

 sues the same course as the first, the individuals of which it is 

 composed being, like those of the first, sexless, or at least without 

 any trace of the male sex throughout. These same conditions 

 are then repeated, and so on almost indefinitely, experiments 

 having shown that this power of reproduction under such circum- 



* From Silliman's American Journal for January 1854. 

 Ann. fy Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xiv. ' 6 



