CANE APHIS. 457 



he least of two evils. To trash his canes under 

 such circumstances would prove almost, if not entirely, 

 destructive to his fields ; he is, therefore, compelled 

 to suffer the Borer to proceed unmolested, until rain 

 has fallen, and the plant has again started into life. 

 Then the removal of all the loose trash from the cane 

 will check the progress of this insect, and by follow- 

 ing up this operation as often as the canes require to 

 be freed from superfluous trash the Borer ceases to 

 effect further perceptible injury.' 



" Mr. Guilding speaks of an undetermined Aphis 

 as one of the insects that infest the sugar cane. 

 Some sugar canes which a friend had growing in his 

 garden in Kingston, were observed early in No- 

 vember 1844 to be infested with Aphides. They 

 made their appearance in considerable swarms, and 

 at once invaded both the leaves of the cane and 

 those of the plantain {Mtisa). Beyond encumbering 

 the foliage with substances that more or less ob- 

 structed their healthy growth, they did not seem to 

 do any injury by lacerating the leaf, nor did they 

 appear to waste the plant by diminishing its ab- 

 sorbent and excretory powers in any perceptible 

 degree ; they, however, continued increasing and mul- 

 tiplying without sexual intercourse, and were ob- 

 served to be ceaselessly visited by the common small 

 ants, which played around them, and touched them 

 caressingly. These provident creatures were taking 

 honey-dew from the abdominal ducts, those remark- 

 able distinguishing appendages of Aphides. Nothing 

 beside this good fellowship of the ants was observed 

 in the colonies of our Aphis, till within some few 



