240 HEMIPTERA. 



has ever come to my notice. 11 These little lice are attended 

 by ants, which generally make their nests near the roots of 

 die plants, so as to have their milch kine, as the plant-lice 

 have been called, within their own habitations ; and in con- 

 sequence of the combined operations of the lice and the 

 ants, the plants wither and prematurely perish. 



When these subterranean lice are disturbed, the attendant 

 ants are thrown into the greatest confusion and alarm ; they 

 carefully take up the lice which have fallen from the roots, 

 and convey them in their jaws into the deep recesses of 

 their nests ; and here the lice still contrive to live upon 

 the fragments of the roots left in the soil. 



It is stated* that the ants bestow the same care and 

 attention upon the root-lice as upon their own offspring, 

 that they defend them from the attacks of other insects, 

 and cany them about in their mouths to change their pas- 

 ture ; and that they pay particular attention to the eggs of 

 the lice, frequently moistening them with their tongues, and 

 in fine weather bringing them to the surface of the nest to 

 give them the advantage of the sun. On the other hand, 

 the sweet fluid supplied in abundance by these lice forms 

 the chief nutriment both of the ants and their young, which 

 is sufficient to account for their solicitude and care for their 

 valuable herds. 



The peach-tree suffers very much from the attacks of 

 plant-lice, which live under the leaves, causing them by 

 their punctures to become thickened, to curl or form hol- 

 lows beneath, and corresponding crispy and reddish swell- 

 ings above, and finally to perish and drop off prematurely. 

 Whether our insect is the same as the European Aphis of 



[" It is very probable that the Aphis infesting China asters is the same with the 

 radicis of Europe. Many foreign species of plant-lice have become naturalized in 

 this country, and we may thus expect to find most, if not all, of the commoner 

 European species infesting our vegetation. The Aphis ( Trnmn) rndlcis of Europe 

 corresponds with our own in color, and, as supposed by Dr. Harris, winged speci- 

 mens have never been discovered. UHLER ] 



* See Kirby and Spence's Introduction to Entomology, Vol. II. pp. 91, 92. 



