548 THE SCALE INSECT, OR MEALY BUG. 



several old-established opinions, and in all probability will serve, when fully investigated, 

 in establishing a new basis on which to found a more perfect system. The Aphides are 

 wonderfully prolific, crowding upon plants until they completely hide them from view, 

 and all employed in sucking the juice by means of the peculiar beak. They haunt 

 every part of the plant, the leaves and their stalks, the branches, and even the roots 

 being infested by these persevering destroyers, which often do great damage, and even 

 force the leaves and branches to twist themselves into extraordinary contortions. Some 

 species raise certain excrescences which serve as habitations for the insects. 



In many species there is a pair of tubercles towards the extremity of the insect, 

 which exude a sweetish liquid in a manner analogous to the frothing of the cuckoo-spit. 

 This liquid falls upon the leaves of trees and is then known by the name of honey-dew. 

 Bees are very fond of this substance, and, wherever it is present in any quantities, may 

 be seen licking up the sweet secretion. Ants are equally fond of honey-dew, but they 

 go to the fountain-head at once, and lap it as it flows from the tubercles. Whole 

 regiments of ants may be seen ascending trees in search of the Aphides ; and it is very 

 amusing to see how they will search every atom of a tree on which the Aphides live, 

 so as not to allow a single insect to escape them. 



The white, cottony substance that is found upon the trunks of apple-trees, and is 

 popularly called the Apple Blight, is produced by one of the Aphides called popularly 

 the American Blight, and known to naturalists under the title of Lachnus lanigerus. 

 In some species the beak or proboscis is of enormous length, three times as long as 

 the body, and projecting like a tail as it is held folded under the body. 



Many species of Aphis are winged, although every individual does not require those 

 organs, being born, developed, producing a family, and then dying without requiring 

 wings, or even moving from the spot whereon it lived. One of the most curious circum- 

 stances connected with these insects is, that although, like all insects, the sexes are 

 distinct, it often happens that the presence of a male is quite needless in the production 

 of a family, at least nine generations of fertile females having been successively produced 

 within three months. One colony of the Aphis Dianthi continued to increase for a 

 space of four years, without a single male among their number ; and it seems generally 

 to be the case that the males are not produced until the end of the summer, the only 

 espousals required being those of the last generation of the year. These lay eggs, 

 which are hatched in the succeeding spring, and from them pours an uninterrupted 

 succession of females, a veritable colony of Amazons, who have no husbands, and 

 millions of which die the mothers of countless descendants, without ever having seen a 

 member of the opposite sex. 



THE right-hand upper figure in the illustration represents the winged male of a small 

 but very remarkable insect, known scientifically as the Coccus, and popularly as the 

 SCALE INSECT, or MEALY BUG, the former title being applied to the exterior of the female, 

 and the latter given on account of the white mealy substance that is found within her 

 body. These insects are sad pests to gardeners, infesting various fruit trees, and in- 

 creasing with such rapidity that their progress can scarcely be checked. The young, 

 too, are of such minute size that they can hardly be seen or destroyed. It appears, 

 however, that the most effectual way of checking their depredations is to make a 

 kind of semi-liquid paste of fine clay and water, and with a brush to wash it well into 

 the bark of the affected trees, so as to cover the insects, deprive them of air, and 

 debar them from removing. Three or four coats are necessary, in order to stop up the 

 minute cracks which are sure to take place in the drying clay, and which would afford 

 ample opportunities of egress to these tiny creatures. 



When the young first make their appearance in the world, they are minute six-footed 

 creatures, with antennae, and two long hairs attached to the tail. The sexes resemble 

 each other until the time conies for their change into the pupal state, when the males 

 assume a quiescent condition, and are covered by a cocoon-like envelope. At the 

 proper time they leave the cocoon, and are then seen to be little flying creatures, with 

 only two active wings, the hinder pair being merely indicated by a couple of 



