BULLETIN No 182 



FOUR RARE APHID GENERA FROM MAINE.* 



tBv EDITH M. PATCH. 

 It often seems safer to describe American species of aphids 

 as new and run the risk of a synonym than to record them 

 under existing European names and thus incur the possibility 

 of confusion. 6\ glyceriae, M. abietinus and S. oblongus, 

 however, are very characteristic, the European descriptions are 

 careful, apparently there is no confusion in European literature 

 in regard to them and each occurs in Maine on the identical 

 genus of food plant upon which it is recorded in Europe. I am 

 venturing, therefore, to present them under their Old World 

 names trusting that they may be able to keep them. Mastopoda 

 pteridis though well known on account of its peculiar structure 

 has been so seldom met with that it is appropriately included in 

 this group of rare genera. 



SIPHA GLYCERIAE. 



1843. Aphis glyceriae Koch. 

 1860. Sip ha glyceriae Passerini. 



This most remarkable aphid excited my curiosity when I first 

 came upon it on account of the fact that many of the aphids 

 were completely submerged in the water on dead blades of 

 grass and apparently in no wise disturbed or inconvenienced by 

 this circumstance, but were to all appearances as comfortable as 

 those above water on live blades. 



In structure this species is no less striking than in habits. 

 The body is very flat and appressed to the leaf. The entire 

 body is armed with stout spines. The cornicles are circular 

 openings elevated very slightly above the surface of the abdo- 



*Papers from the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station : Entomol- 

 ogy No. 44. 



