458 SPANISH TOWN. 



weeks before they were brought under my notice, 

 that is, in February 1845, when a very remarkable 

 white insect with a bristled bordering of fleshy 

 tubercles on the abdominal rings, a mark of the larva 

 of the Aphis-lion {Chrysops), made its appearance 

 among them. The Aphis-lions devoured the Aphides, 

 and covered themselves with the fragments of what 

 they slaughtered. Whether the white efflorescence, 

 which makes its appearance on the vegetation in- 

 fested by the Aphis, and the little white spots like 

 patches of hoar frost, which mark the presence of 

 the Aphis-lion, be what in other islands they call 

 the white blast, which was said to have been distress- 

 ingly prevalent in 1844, 1 am not able to say, but it is 

 extremely probable that this plague had been general 

 throughout the West Indies that season. On ex- 

 amining under the microscope the leaves infested 

 v^^ith the Aphides, little pearl-like cases were seen, 

 each containing an insect in its course of develop- 

 ment. These cases were numerously spread about 

 the foliage. Some of the cells were seen already 

 perforated and empty. The Aphides were to be 

 observed about in their active pupa state, some 

 v^rith their undeveloped wings glued to their sides, 

 and with their bodies of a bulk somewhat exceeding 

 that of the perfect insect ; the perfect fly had wide 

 reticulated wings marked with an obscure patch in 

 one section of the outer part of the main nervure, 

 while both possessed the two short conical abdominal 

 tubes from which the ants that visited them gathered 

 supplies of honey-dew. 



" Some time ago the Agricultural Society of Gre- 



