4 44 Remarks on Aphides. 



" I have taken a good deal of pains to find out the birth and parentag3 

 of true blights J and for this purpose have watched, day after day, the 

 colonies of them in my own garden, and single ones which I have kept in 

 doors, and under tumblers turned upside down : the increase is prodi- 

 gious ; it beats every thing of the kind that I have ever seen, heard, or 

 read of. Insects in general come from an egg ; then turn to a caterpillar, 

 which does nothing but eat ; then to a chrysalis, which does nothing but 

 sleep ; then to a perfect beetle or fly, which does nothing but increase its 

 kind. But blights proceed altogether on another system ; the young ones 

 are born exactly like the old ones, but less; they stick their beaks through 

 the rind, and begin drawing sap when only a day old, and go on quietly 

 sucking away for seven or eight days ; and then, without love, courtship, 

 or matrimony, each individual begins bringing forth young ones, and con- 

 tinues to do so for months, at the rate of from a dozen to eighteen every 

 day, and yet continues to increase in size all the while : there seem to be 

 no males, no drones, all bring forth alike. Early in the year these blights 

 are scattered along the stems, but as soon as the little ones come to hght, 

 and commence sap-sucking close to their mother, the spaces get filled up, 

 the old ones look like giants among the rest, as here and there an ox in a 

 flock of sheep ; when all the spare room is filled up, and the stalk com- 

 pletely covered. The young ones, when they make their first appearance 

 in the world, seem rather posed as to what to be at, and stand quietly on 

 the backs of the others for an hour or so ; then, as if having made up their 

 minds, they toddle upwards, walking on the backs of the whole flock till they 

 arrive at the upper end, and then settle themselves quietly down, as close 

 as possible to the outermost of their friends, and then commence sap-suck- 

 ing like the rest ; the flock by this means extends in length every day, and 

 at last the growing shoot is overtaken by their multitude, and completely 

 covered to the very tip. Towards autumn, however, the blights undergo a 

 change in their nature : their feet stick close to the rind, their skin opens 

 along the back, and a winged blight comes out — the summer generations 

 being entirely wingless. These are male and female, and fly about and 

 enjoy themselves; and, what seems scarcely credible, these winged females 

 lay eggs, having first lived through the winter ; and, whilst this operation 

 is going on, a solitary winged blight may be observed on the under side of 

 the leaves, or on the young shoots, particularly on the hop, and differing 

 from all its own progeny, in being winged and nearly black, whereas its 

 young are green and without wings. In May, a fly lays a lot of eggs ; 

 these eggs hatch and become blights ; these blights are viviparous, and 

 that without the usual union of sexes, and so are their children and grand- 

 children, the number of bii'ths depending solely on the quantity and quality 

 of their food; at last, as winter approaches, the whole generation, or 

 series of generations, assumes wings, which the parents did not possess, 

 undergoes frequently a total change in colour, and in the spring, instead 

 of being viviparous, lays eggs. 



" You will never find a plant of any kind infested with the aphis, without 

 also observing a number of ants and ladybirds among them, and also a 

 queer-looking insect, like a fat lizard, which is in fact the caterpillar of 

 the ladybird. The connection of the ant and the aphis is of the most 

 peaceful kind that can be conceived ; their object is the honeydew which 

 the aphis emits ; and, far from hurting the animal which affords them this 

 pleasant food, they show it the greatest possible attention and kindness, 

 licking it all over with their tongues, and fondling it, and patting it, and 

 caressing it with their antennae in the kindest prettiest way imaginable : 

 not so the ladybird, or its lizard-like caterpillar; these feed on the blights 

 most voraciously, a single grub clearing a leaf, on which were forty or 

 more, in the course of a day. The perfect ladybird is a decided enemy 



