THE CAN ADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 97 
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION or APHIDES.—The Aphis family is, as 
vet, very little known in low latitudes, and there are only two instances of 
its occurrence to the south of the equato. The first is a Madagascar 
genus, published by Coquerel: this genus has the fore wings more highly 
organized than those of any other known form of the tribe. The second 
dwells near New Caledonia, and is described by Montrouzier, and has 
much resemblance to some of the European Aphides. In Dr. Leith’s 
collection of Bombay insects, I have observed an Aphis which, if its spe- 
cific characters are not obliterated by its shrivellcd condition, is identical 
with acommon English species. The next record of the family is in 
North Italy, where Passerini has published a monograph of the species 
therein. Africa, Asia and Australia are thus almost undiscovered coun- 
tries as regards Aphides, and afford a large space and require much time 
for research. The Aphides of America are unknown from the Southern 
end to the Northern States, where several new species have been 
described ; a few there, are also species of Europe, and may have been 
introduced thence into America. Kaltenbach has published a work on 
the Aphides of Germany ; and Koch another, on those of the same coun- 
try; and, notwithstanding the three monographs here mentioned, and 
various descriptions of species in France and in Sweden, there is much 
yet to be discovered in Europe, especially with regard to the migratory 
species, and to the more or less conspicuous and numerous alternate gen- 
erations, and to the influence of temperature and vegetation in changing 
the structure. The history of Aphides is connected with that of Coccin- 
ellae, Hemerobii, and Syrphi, which destroy them from without ; and with 
that of Aphidiidae, Allotridae, and a few Chalcidiae, which destroy them 
from within ; and with that of ants, which keep them as a flock, and feed 
on their honey. ‘The little yellow ant lives with Aphides under ground ; 
the black ant is a guide to the discovery of the long-beaked Aphis in the 
crevices of the bark of oak trees ; and the large black and red ant resorts 
to the Aphides in woods. Some Aphides are especially subject to the 
attacks of Aphidii, from which other species, though equally numerous 
and noxious, are nearly free, weather and want of food being the agents 
in causing the latter to pass away. The comfrey Aphis is the frequent 
prey of a little red Dipterous larva, which seldom attacks other species. 
The fact that Aphides are stored by fossorial Hymenoptera as provision 
for their young is well known; and I observed an instance of it in Fin- 
