16 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



PRELIMINARY LIST OF APHIDID/E FOUND IN KENT. 

 By Fred V. Theobald, M.A., &e. 



Little seems to be known of the Apbididte found in Kent. 

 The records are very few and yet the species undoubtedly very 

 numerous. During the last fifteen years specimens have been 

 collected or observed in dift'ereot parts of the county. Many of 

 these have not yet been identified. Careful collecting would 

 probably reveal a very large number more, many new to Britain, 

 and probably some new to science. Eighty species are shown 

 here to have occurred in the county, and thirty remain un- 

 identified. 



These insects are of great economic importance and deserve 

 more attention. At present we know but very little of their 

 life-cycles, their varied migrations, or of the numerous subter- 

 ranean forms. When one considers the enormous loss caused 

 by these insects it is strange that they are so neglected. Pro- 

 bably this is for two reasons — first, that they are most difiicult 

 to get named, and, secondly, their bionomics are so abstruse that 

 one dare not call any form a species. 



Where such well-known aphides as we find in orchards on 

 pear, apple, currants, &c.,come from or go to we cannot say. A 

 sudden " blight " attacks currants, and as suddenly, later on, 

 leaves the currants. Where do they go to? what is their other 

 host-plant ? Probably we shall find that most of the Aphididfe 

 have two host-plants, just as we see in the hop aphis, the elm 

 leaf-curling aphis, the mealy plum aphis, and others. 



The following is merely a preliminary list of the aphides I 

 have found in Kent, and it is hoped a second will be complete 

 in another few years. 



One reason I record these insects is because in a brochure I 

 have recently bought in Berlin on the ' Insects of Kent ' — a 

 paged proof of some ' County History ' — no mention is made of 

 the Aphididse. In the same county list one also notices that 

 some of the most abundant insects, and some which annually 

 cause thousands of pounds of loss are not even mentioned, such 

 as the apple sucker (Psylla mali) or the apple-blossom weevil 

 {Anthonomus pomorum) , and others of great economic importance. 



APHIDIN^.- 

 Genus Siphonophora, Koch. 



Siphoyiophora roses, Reaumur. — Common generally over the county, 

 judging from the wide localities it has been seen in or sent from. 

 This species is a migrant to and from the teazle ; at least I can 

 detect no difference between the two insects. 



* I have followed here the nomenclature used by Buckton, as his is the 

 only British work we have to refer to, but I do so with some hesitation. 



