244 OUR INSECT FRIENDS AND FOES 



in the body of the Aphis, the resulting larvae 

 thriving upon the fat, so to speak, of their 

 unhappy host, until the Aphis dies from exhaus- 

 tion. The tiny ichneumon is ever alert and on 

 the watch for its victims, and the most super- 

 ficial examination of a few heads of wheat 

 towards the end of the summer will show 

 hundreds of dead Aphides, each with a minute 

 hole in the skin through which the parasite has 

 emerged, after passing through its metamorphosis 

 within. 



Every one who has visited an old orchard 

 during the summer months must be familiar 

 with the curious patches of white, cottony 

 looking material attached to the trunks and 

 branches of the fruit trees. These curious 

 patches, on closer observation, will be found 

 to shelter numbers of reddish or slatey grey 

 coloured Aphides, commonly known as the 

 American Blight or Woolly Aphis, and said to 

 have been imported into this country from 

 America in 1787 ; though there seems to be some 

 uncertainty as to this being a fact, the opinions 

 of experts differing on the subject. Whether 

 indigenous or imported, however, one fact is 

 only too well established, and that is the very 

 serious injury which these Aphides cause every 

 year in our orchards, by their constant punctur- 

 ing of the tissues and sucking at the sap; indeed, 

 so great has been the havoc wrought by this 

 insect foe, that in some years the entire cider 

 crop has been lost in some counties. The 

 characteristic " wool," is excreted from the back 

 of the insect, and serves a double purpose, 



