Remarks on Aphides. 44-S 



to them *, but not so formidable a one as the grub. The eggs of the lady- 

 bird may often be seen on the hop leaf; they are yellow, and five or six 

 in a cluster placed on their ends : these should on no account be de- 

 stroyed, as is too often the case ; but, on the contrary, every encourage- 

 ment should be given to so decided a friend to the hop-grower. 



" Besides the ladybird and its grub, there are two other terrible enemies 

 to the poor aphis ; one of which is a green ungainly-looking grub, with- 

 out legs, which lies flat on the surface of the leaf, and stretches out its 

 neck just like a leech, till it touches one of them; directly he feels one 

 he seizes it in his teeth, and holds it up wriggling in the air, till he has 

 sucked all the goodness out of it, and left it a mere empty skin. This curious 

 creature turns to a fly [one of the Syrphidte, Ed. Ent. Mag.}, which has a 

 body banded with different colours, and which in summer you may often 

 observe under trees and about flowers, standing quite still in the air, as 

 though asleep, yet, if you try to catch him, darting off like an arrow. 

 The other has six legs, and very large strong curved jaws, and is a most 

 ferocious-looking fellow, strutting about with the wings of the blights 

 which he has killed on his back. This fierce fellow comes to a very 

 beautiful fly [Chrysopa Perla, Ed. Ent. Mag.] with four wings, all divided 

 into meshes like a net, and two beautiful golden eyes. All these creatures, 

 which thus live on the plant lice, have a very strong and disagreeable smell 

 in the perfect state. 



" For a favourite plant infested with blight there are several remedies — 

 smoke of tobacco, snuff, &c. ; but the most effectual, and, the least hurtful to 

 the plant, is to let it stand in a tank of cold water for half an hour, when 

 all the blights will leave it, and swim on the surface of the water. For 

 hops, none of these plans are available ; and, unless a way could be dis- 

 covered of increasing the number of the blight-eaters, I fear the chance 

 of discovering a remedy is very small." — Rusticus. Godalming, Septeinber 

 16. 18'32. {Entomological Magazine, No. iii. p. 217, 224.) 



* The larch tree has, at least when planted over chalk, in some seasons, 

 its foliage, soon after it is expanded, speckled all over with minute clusters 

 of white down ; in each of which a group of animated atoms, or creatures, 

 nestle. These are individuals of an insect named, I have been told. Coccus 

 laricis ; and I may here incidentally advise no one, when clad in a new 

 coat, to pass through a plantation of larch on which, and while, these pre- 

 vail. The first instance I had the pleasure to witness of the golden bug's 

 devouring small insects was some eight years ago, when I saw it attacking 

 these Cocci, on the branch of a young larch tree. I was struck with the 

 determination and the comparative speed with which the Coccinella took 

 them one by one out of my sight into its mouth. 



It is dangerous to be found in bad company. Because the golden bug is 

 often seen in company with A'phides, Cocci, &c., it has been deemed the 

 parent of them by the unthinking. An amateur florist, aged perhaps fifty- 

 five years, so skilled as to occasionally win prizes with his productions at 

 the horticultural society's shows in the neighbourhood, once accompanied 

 me round a garden, and, on his observing a golden bug or two on plants that 

 we passed, he picked them off, and crushed them to death, remarking at 

 the time, with an air of complaisant approbation of his judgment and zeal, 

 " Nasty things ! they breed lice and all sorts of vermin." Mr. Major has 

 given, in Vol. IV. p. 445., an accurate notice on the habits of the golden 

 bug and its larva. — J. D. 



