.'42 INSECTS AT HOME. 



from its neighbour by a space about equalling its own diameter. 

 These spots are, in fact, the little tubercles whose existence is 

 described as being detected by the pocket-lens. 



Many species of Frog-hopper inhabit England, but the two 

 which have been selected will serve as excellent examples. 



The next group of this remarkable order is that whicli is 

 named Dimera, or two-jointed, because*the tarsus has only two 

 joints. The antennae are always slender and longer than the 

 liead, and the winged individuals possess four wings, both pairs 

 being of much the same texture. We will pass at once to the 

 important family of Aphidse, or Plant-lice, sometimes known 

 under the popular name of Green Blight. 



One of the commonest of these most remarkable insects, the 

 Lime-Bligiit (Aphis tilice), is shown on Woodcut LXII. Figs. 3 

 and 4, the upper figure representing the female, and the lower 

 the male. 



The colour of the male is dull yellow, with a double row of 

 black dots down the back. In the wings the stigma, or spot, is 

 yellow, and all the nervures are yellowish-brown at the tips. 

 The female is simply yellow. Fig. h represents its rostrum, or 

 beak, and Fig. c the front of the head, all these figui-es being 

 much magnified. The insect can be taken with the sweep-net 

 in long grass, w^hich the male loves to frequent, while tlie 

 female is found on the lime-tree. 



Insignificant as may be a single Aphis, these insects are most 

 formidable from their numbers, as all gardeners know to their 

 cost. Eoses are often so thickly covered with these pestilential 

 insects that the leaves and buds are completely hidden, the 

 •latter never being permitted to develope themselves into flowers. 

 Indeed, there is scarcely a plant that has not its Aj)his, and 

 these extraordinary beings not only haunt the leaves and the 

 twigs of plants, but the roots and the fruit. Mr. Newman 

 remarks in his ' Letters of Rusticus ' : ' Plant-lice are every- 

 where. I have to-day (August 15, 1835) cut open codlin after 

 codlin, and found the pips garrisoned with them ; not one lone 

 Aphis, but a whole troop of all sizes. When I let in the day- 

 light there was a considerable sprawling and waving of legs, 

 and no small alarm in the hive, but by degrees they got used to 

 light and fresh air, and were quite still. I tried to tickle them 



