2 FLASFlLlCillTS ON NATURE 



To the world at lar^e, tlic apliides, as we call them, 

 are mere nameless nuisances — pests that infest 

 our choicest plants ; to the eye of the naturalist, 

 tiiey are a marvellous and deeply interesting 

 j^rouji of animals, with one of the oddest pedi- 

 j^rees, one of the queeiest biographies, known to 

 science. 



I propose, therefore, in this paper briefly to 

 recount their story from the cradle to the ^rave ; 

 or, rather, to be literally accurate, from the time 

 when they Inst emerge from the ej^g to the moment 

 when they are eaten alive (witli some hundreds of 

 their kind) by one or other of their watchful ene- 

 mies. In this task I shall be aided not a little 

 by the clever and vivid dramatic sketches of the 

 Aphides at Home, which have been prepared for 

 me by my able and watchful collaborator, Mr. 

 Frederick Knock, an enthusiastic and observant 

 naturalist, who thinks nothing of sitting up all 

 night, if so he may catch a beetle's egg at the 

 moment of hatching ; and who will keep his eye 

 to the microscope for twehe liouis at a stretch, 

 relieved only by occasional light refreshment in the 

 shape of a sandwich, if so he may intercept some 

 rare chrysalis at its moment of bursting, or behold 

 some special grub spin the silken cocoon wi hin 

 whose case it is to develop into the perfect winged 

 insect. 



Kose-aphides, or ** green-Hies," as most people 

 call them, are, to the casual eye, a mere mass of 

 living " blight "—a confused group of tiny trans- 



