328 



THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



the woodman's axe and ihe sporlsraan's gun, we 

 are left to our own ingenuity, perseverance, and 

 united efforts, to conirive and carry into effect 

 other means lor checking their ravages. 



Apple, elm, and lime trees are eometimes in- 

 jured a good deal by another kind of span-worm, 

 lartrer than ttie canker-worm. As they resemble 

 the"" latter in their habhs, and often live on the 

 same trees, ihey can be kept in check by such 

 means as are lound useful when employed 

 against canker-worms. 



PLANT LICE. 



Aphides, or plant-lice, as they are usually called, 

 are among the most extraordinary ot insects. 

 They are lound upon almost all parts ol plants, 

 the roots, stems, young shoots, buds, and leaves, 

 and there is scarcely a plant which does not harbor 

 one or two kinds peculiar to itselt. They are, 

 moreover, exceedingly prolific, lor Reaumur has 

 proved that one individual, in five generations, may 

 become the progenitor of nearly six thousand mil- 

 lions of descendants. It often happens that the 

 succulent extremities and stems ot plants will, in 

 an incredibly short space of time, become com- 

 pletely coated with a living mass oi these little 

 lice. These are usually wingless, consisting of 

 the young and of the li^males only ; lor winged 

 individuals appear only,at particular seasons, usu- 

 ally in the autumn, but sometimes in the spring, 

 and these are small males and larger lemales. 

 After pairing, the latter lay their eggs upon or 

 near the leaf-buds of the plant upon which they 

 live, and, together with the males, soon alter- , 

 wards perish. . 



The '^cnus to which plant-lice belong is called ] 

 ^phis, horn a Greek word which signifies to ex- 

 haust. The following are the principal charac- 

 ters by which they may be distinguished Irora 

 other insects. Their bodies are short, oval, and 

 soft and are furnished at the hinder extremity 

 with two little tubes, knobs, or pores, from which 

 exude almost constantly minute drops ol a fiuid as 

 sweet as honey ; their heads are small, their 

 beaks are very long and tubular, their eyes are 

 (Tlobular, but they have not eyelets, their antenna; 

 arelono-, and usually taper towards the extremity, 

 and their legs are also long and very slender, and 

 there are only two joints to their feet. Their 

 upper are nearly twice as large as the lower wings, 

 are much longer than the body, are gradually 

 widened towards the extremity, and nearly trian- 

 aular • they are almost vertical when at rest, and 

 cover 'the body above like a very sharp-ndged 



roof. . , „ 



The winged plant-lice provide for a succession 

 of their race by stocking the plants with eggs in 

 the autumn, as before stated. These are hatched 

 in due time in the spring, and the young lice im- 

 mediately begin to pump up sap hom the tender 

 leaves and shoots, increase rapidly in size, and in 

 a short lime come to maluiity. In this state, it is 

 lound that the brood, without a single exception, 

 consists wholly of females, which are wingless, 

 but are in a condition immediately to continue 

 their kind. Their young, however, are not hatch- 

 ed from co'gs, but are produced alive, and each 

 female may°be the mother of fifteen or twenty 

 young lice in the course of a single day. The 

 plant°lice of this second generation are also wing- 

 less females, which grow up and have their 



younf in due time ; and thus brood after brood is 

 produ'ced, even to the seventh generation or more, 

 without the appearance or intervention, through- 

 out the whole season, of a single male. 1 his 

 extraordinary kind of propagation ends in the au- 

 tumn with the birth of a brood of males and le- 

 males, which in due time acquire wings and pair 3 

 ecTcrs are then laid by these lemales, and with the 

 dlath of these winged individuals, which soon 

 Ibllows, the race becomes extinct for the season. 

 Plant lice seem to love society, and often herd 

 toc^ether in dense masses, each one remaining 

 fix°ed to the plant by means of its ong tubular 

 beak ; and they rarely change their places till they 

 have exhausted the part first attacked. 1 he atti- 

 tudes and manners of these little creatures are ex- 

 ceedingly amusing. VVhen disturbed, like restive 

 horses they begin to kick and sprawl m the most 

 ludicrous manner. They may be seen at times 

 suspended by their beak alone, and throwing up 

 their lecTs as if in a high frolic, but too much en- 

 aaged in sucking to withdraw their beaks. As 

 They take in great quantities of sap, they would 

 soon become gorged if they did not get rid of the 

 superabundant fluid through the two litie tubes or 

 pores at the extremity of their bodies. When one 

 of them gets running-over full, it seems to commu- 

 nicate its uneasy sensations, by a kind of animal 

 magnetism, to the whole flock, upon vvhich they 

 all, With one accord, jerk upwards their bodies, and 

 eject a shower of the honeyed fluid. . „ .. , 

 The leaves and bark of plants much mfesled by 

 these insecis are often completely sprinkled over 

 i with drops of this sticky fluid, which on drying 

 becomes dark-colored, and greatly disfigures he 

 I foliatre. This appearance has been denommated 

 hone"y-dew; but there is another some what similar 



production observable on plants, after very dry 

 weather, which has received the same narne, and 

 consists of an extravasation or oozing «' ^"^^^P 

 from the leaves. We are often apprized ol the 

 presence of plant-lice on plants growing in he 

 open air, by the ants ascending and descending the 

 steiBS. By observing the motions of the latter, vve 

 soon ascertain that the sweet fluid discharged by 

 the lice is the occasion of these visits. 1 he stems 

 swarm with slim and hungry ants, runmng up- 

 wards, and others lazily descendinff, with theiir 

 bellies swelled almost to bursting. When arrived 

 in the immediate vicinity of the plant-lice, they 

 crreedily wipe up the sweet fluid which has distill- 

 ed from them, and, when this fails, they station 

 themselves amongthe lice, and catch the drops as 

 thev fall. The lice do not seem in the least an- 

 noyed by the ants, but live on the best possible 

 terms with them ; and, on the other hand, the 

 ants, though unsparing of other insects weaker 

 than themselves, upon which (hey frequen ly 

 prev, treat the plant-lice with the utmost gentle- 

 ness caressing them with their antennae, and 

 apparently inviting them to give out the fluid by 

 naltintT their sides. Nor are the lice inattentive 

 to these solicitations, when in a state to grati y 

 the ants, for whose sake they not only seem to 

 shorten the periods of the discharge, but actually 

 yield the fluid when thus pressed. A single louse 

 has been known to give it drop by drop succes- 

 sively to a number of ants, that were waiting anx- 

 iously to receive it. When the plant-lice cast 

 their skins, the ants instantly remove the latter, 

 nor will they allow any dirt or rubbish to reraam 



