438 



FARMERS' REGISTER— THE APHIS. 



anticipations are not irrationally iounded, the Plia- 

 laris Americana will yet become the gama grass oJ 

 the north. It is truly perennial, spreads rapidly, 

 and may be innoculated in the manner suggested 

 by Mr. Robinson, especially in a soil saturated 

 with water, Avith great I'acihty, and at trifling ex- 

 pense. 



From the Entomological Magazine. 

 ON THE APHIS, &C. 



The true blight or Aphis is a quite, dull stiipid- 

 looking insect, mostly without wings, but some- 

 times it has lour, two of which are much larger 

 and longer than the other tv/o, and fold over 

 and hide them, reaching beyond the body, and 

 meet together behind it. These wings are gener- 

 ally as clear as cr3^stal, with a few veins in them, 

 yet if you hold tlie insect in the sunshine, and 

 examine him through a glass, you will find they 

 take all the colors of the rainbow: you will also 

 find he has a long trunk or sucker, which is used 

 as a pump or syphon, througli which the sap of 

 plants is drawn. I have sometimes seen this 

 sucker so long as to pass vinder the breast and 

 legs, and reach a considerable distance behind the 

 body, but it is not generally so. All blights infijst 

 the young aixd juicy shoots and leaves of plants, 

 for the purpose of sap-sucking: and the plants 

 honored, by their operations forthwith play the 

 most amusing and incredible vagaries: bearing 

 blossoms instead of leaves, leaves instead of 

 blossoms: twisting into corkscrew stems which 

 ought to be straight, and making straight as sticks 

 those which, like the scarlet runner and hop, 

 ought to twine; as in the peach, making the 

 leaves hump up in the middle, and causing the 

 tree to look as though it had a famous crop of 

 young fruit; making apple trees bear blossoms 

 on their roots, and causing roots to grow out of 

 their young shoots; and, by tormenting orchards 

 in this way, preventing the truit from ripening, 

 and making it woolly, tasteless, and without juice. 

 Our China asters often owe a good deal of their 

 beauty to these vermin; they act as a spur to make 

 them blossom beyond their strength and nature, 

 and then die off without bearing seed. It is 

 amusing to see with what regularity the blight 

 station themselves on the young shoots of the 

 Guelder-rose, crowding so close together that 

 not a morsel of the rind is to be seen, and not un- 

 frequently forming a double tier, or two thick- 

 nesses; the poor sprig losing its former unbending 

 upright position, and writhing itself into strange 

 contortions. 



Blights are of all colors, but green is their 

 most fashionable hue; those of broad beans are 

 black as soot, and velvety; and these, if attended 

 to, do but little harm; they cluster at the very 

 top, and each bean should be lopped just be- 

 low the blight, and the top carried away and burnt, 

 not thrown on the groimd, or else they are sure 

 to climb up the bean stalks again, and, stoppino- 

 here and there at the best landing place, to in- 

 crease and multiply, thus soon covering the whole 

 plant; nor should they be buried in the ground, for 

 they take care to outvvityou by living under ground 

 for months, and, when the gardener's spade turns 

 them up again, they make for the beans directly; 

 the plan of lopping the beans does not injure the 

 crop, qut, if carefully done, rather improves it. 

 The blight of the willow is very large, and, at first 



sight looks grayish, but under a glass is beautifully 

 variegated with black and white; when crushed it 

 gives out a deep blood-colored die, which slays 

 on your hands several da}'s, in spite of frequent 

 washings. 



I ha\e taken a good deal of pains to find out the 

 birth and parentage of true blights; and for this 

 purpose have watched, day after day, the colonies 

 of them in my own garden, and single ones which 

 I have kept in-doors, and under tumblers turn- 

 ed upside dov/n. The increase is prodigious; it 

 beats every thing of the kind that I have ever 

 seen, heard, or read of. Insects in general come 

 from an egg; then turn to a caterpillar, which does 

 nothing but eat; then to a chrysalis, which does 

 nothing but sleep; then to a perfect beetle or fly, 

 which does nothing but increase its kind. But 

 blights proceed altogether on another system; the 

 young ones are born exactly like the old" ones, but 

 less; they stick their beaks through the rind, and 

 begin drawing sap when only a day old, and go 

 on quietly sucking away for seven or eight days; 

 and then, without love, courtship, or matrimony, 

 each individual begins bringing Ibrth young ones, 

 I and continues to do so for months, at the rate of 

 I from a dozen to eighteen every da}', and yet con- 

 tinues to increase in size all the while: there seem 

 to be no males, no drones, all bring forth alike. 

 Early in the year these blights are scattered along 

 the stems, but as soon as the little ones come to 

 light, and commence sap-sucking close to their 

 mother, the species get filled up, the old ones look 

 like giants among the rest, as here and there an 

 ox in a fiock of sheep; when all the spare room is 

 filled up, and the stalk completely covered. The 

 young ones, when they make their first appear- 

 ance in the world, seem rather posed as to what to 

 be at, and stand quietly on the backs of the others 

 for an hour or so; then, as if having made up their 

 minds, they toddle upwards, walking on the backs 

 of the whole flock till they arrive at the upper end, 

 and then settle themselves quickly down, as close 

 as possible to the outermost of their friends, and 

 then commence sap-sucking like the rest; the flock 

 by this means extends in length every day, and at 

 last the growing shoot is ov^ertaken by their multi- 

 tude, and completely covered to the very tip. To- 

 wards autumn, however, the blights undergo a 

 change in their nature; their feet stick close to the 

 rind, their skin opens along the back, and a wing- 

 ed blight comes out — the summer generations are 

 entirely wingless. These are male and female, 

 and fly about and enjoy themselves; and, what 

 seems scarcely credible, these winged females lay 

 eggs, having first lived through the winter; and, 

 whilst this operation is going on, a solitary winged 

 blight may be observed on the under sides of the 

 leaves, or on the young shoots, particularly on the 

 hop, and diflering from all its own progeny, in be- 

 ing winged and nearly black, whereas its young 

 are green and without v.diigs. In May, a fly lays 

 a lot of effgs; these eggs hatch and become 

 blights; these blights are viviparous, and that 

 without the usual union of sexes, and so are their 

 children and grandchildren, the number of births 

 depending solely on the quantity and quality of 

 their food; at last, as winter approaches, the whole 

 generation, or series of generations, assume 

 wings, which the parents did not jiossess, under- 

 goes irequenly a total change in color, and hi the 

 spring, instead of being viviparous, lays eggs. 



