APPLES ENEMIES. 



39 



sucker, or chermes, is very destructive, sucking the sap from the leaves and young 

 shoots, whilst their secretions fall on and clog the surfaces of the leaves and wood. 

 The insects pair in September, and the females lay their eggs singly in rows, or several 

 together, usually in the furrows of the knots and spurs, also on the previous year's 

 growths. The eggs are white, pointed at both ends, a line and a half long, and the 

 fourth of a line thick, and become yellow before hatching. The larvae emerge from the 

 eggs from early March to early April, according to season, and at once commence gnaw- 

 ing the scales of the nearest bud, and, gaining access to the blossoms, fasten on the 

 stems of the flowers before they expand, depriving them of sap, and causing the flower- 

 buds to shrivel. In a few days the larva throws out an immense number of very fine 

 entangled threads or small hairs, which it turns up over its back, and with them entirely 



Fig. 19. APPLE CHERMES (PSTLLA KALI). 



References: 1, larva, enlarged; 2, pupa, magnified: natural size, line beneath; 3, chermes on apple shoot, 

 magnified : natural length of body below ; 4, insect on wing, much enlarged. 



covers its body and head. Thus armoured, the chermes defies ants and other insect 

 attacks, and after passing through various transformations of skin the insect retires 

 to a part of the leaf which it selects, fixes itself there, and from the nymph, by split- 

 ting the back of the case, a beautiful winged chermes appears. The back of the thorax 

 is of a light green, the abdomen is marked with yellow rings, and the membranous 

 wings with strongly -marked snow-white veins. They may be found in small parties on 

 a yellowing leaf in September. The perfect insects appear in June. 



This pest is a very old and not very generally noticed enemy of apple buds and 

 young growths, being confounded with aphides and American blight on account of its 

 downy covering. From the aphides it may be known by its rather larger size, rounded 

 wings, harder body, and jumping when disturbed ; and chermes are readily dis- 

 tinguished from woolly aphis, Vol. I., page 253, by their metallic lustre and wings. 

 The illustration will assist growers to identify apple-suckers. 



