Mr. F. Walker's Descriptions of Aphides. 107 



it : the feelers are dull yellow, filiform, and about half the length 

 of the body : the eyes are rather prominent : the mouth is pale 

 yellow with a black tip and as long as the body : the legs are 

 black ; the thighs and the shanks are yellow towards the base. 

 When full-grown it is oval, smooth, hairy, very glossy, and of a 

 dark brown or metallic purple tint : the head is dark red, and has 

 two impressions between the eyes : the feelers are black, hairy, 

 yellow towards the base, and also at the base of each joint ; the 

 fourth joint is less than half the length of the third ; the fifth is 

 a little shorter than the fourth ; the sixth is hardly half the length 

 of the fifth ; the seventh is extremely short : the front is convex : 

 the sides of the fore-chest are slightly undulated : there is a rim 

 round the under side of the abdomen : the mouth reaches the 

 hind-hips : the nectaries are like tubercles, and hardly rise above 

 the surface of the abdomen : the legs are long, slender, black, and 

 hairy ; the base of the thighs is yellow, and there is a broad yel- 

 low band around each shank ; the pale colour as usual prevails 

 most in the fore-legs and least in the hind-legs, which are very 

 long, and their shanks are much curved. 



The viviparous winded female. This dififers as usual in struc- 

 ture from the wingless insect, but much resembles it in shape and 

 colour : the fifth joint of the feelers is as long as the fourth : the 

 wings are rather short and narrow, and of a dark brown colour with 

 three colourless bands ; the second band descends from the rib- 

 vein to the hind-border of the wing ; the third winds round the 

 tip of the brand; the wing-rib is broad, and at half the length of 

 the wing it dilates into a wide brand which is nearly linear, and 

 is rounded away at the tip, not forming an angle ; the fourth vein 

 is rather long, and is much curved at its base which springs from 

 the rib-vein just before the curve of the latter begins ; it is clouded 

 on each side of the base, and there divides the colourless band 

 on the wing ; the third vein is obsolete at its base ; it is forked a 

 little before one-third, and forked again a little before two-thirds 

 of its length ; the second vein is slightly curved ; the first is un- 

 dulated and strongly marked ; these two veins are near each 

 other where they leave the rib-vein, but far apart at their tips. 



The oviparous loingless female. This is larger than the vivipa- 

 rous female, and the fifth joint of the feelers is longer than the 

 fourth. 



Length of the body 2-2|^ lines ; of the wings 5 lines. 



This species is the prey of a parasitic Hymenopterous insect ; 

 it is most abundant in the autumn, and feeds then in large clus- 

 ters on the shoots of the oak ; it seems to prefer the branches 

 that grow from the old stumps of that tree, and is attended by 

 Formica fuliginosa and by F. rufa, especially by the latter species. 

 The wings when just unfolded are of a milk-white colour, and 



