INCREASE OF THE APHIS. 543 



with a straw in order again to watch their movements, when, 

 lo and hehold, tliey were all dead — gathered to their fathers — 

 gone to the tomb of all the Capulets ! Some liad heaved 

 anchor, and dropped from the pip ; others, fixed more firmly, 

 had died at their posts, and, tucking their legs together under 

 them, hung by their beaks. 



' In no apple was tliere any road in or out. There was no 

 chance of their passing to the exterior air, or of their having 

 come from it ; indeed, their speedy death showed that change 

 of air did not agree with tliem. I was particularly careful in 

 my search for a via, but tliere was none. I have often seen the 

 same thing in a bloated poplar-leaf; but here is a possibility 

 of the egg being laid between the cuticles of the leaf; thus, 

 the sap-suction commencing, the bloat may be caused, but this 

 is impossible in a huge apple with an inch and a half of pulp 

 in every direction. I am unable to explain the mystery ; and, 

 like many other wiseacres, content myself with wondering 

 how, in the name of fortune, the Aphides got there.' 



These insects are prolific almost beyond belief. As a general 

 rule, insects lay eggs which are hatched, pass through the state 

 of larva and pupa, and then become perfect insects. But the 

 Plant-lice go on a very different plan. Sometimes, as if to 

 show that they are amenable to law, they do lay eggs ; but 

 this is the exception and not the rule, which is somewhat 

 as follows, though varied every now and then by these most 

 eccentric of insects. 



A female Aphis takes her place on a branch — say of the 

 rose — plunges her beak into the tender bark and begins to 

 suck the sap. After a short time she begins to produce young 

 Aphides, at an average rate of fourteen per diem. These 

 young creatures are just like their mother, only less, and 

 immediately follow her example by first sucking the sap of 

 the plant and then producing fresh young. As to the opposite 

 sex, it is no business of theirs, and I have often wondered 

 that the Shakers have not adduced the Aphides in support 

 of their peculiar tenets. The extent to which this peculiar 

 mode of increase can be carried may be imagined from tlie 

 fact that a single female Aphis, isolated from the other sex, 

 began to produce prolific females, which in their turn pro- 

 duced others, and so on for four years ; during the whole of 



