1903.] B. P. Stebbing — Life-History of Chermes abietis-picese Steb. 233 



old trees and saplings or on portions of some of tbe side branches. 

 Tops, leading shoots and branches, covered in this way -with what look 

 to be white fungous filaments, are often seen to be dying or dead and 

 dried up. Round Deoban (elev. 9,300 ft.) in the Jaunsar Barwar 

 Forests a number of both young and old trees have these dead tops. I 

 have, however, up to date been quite unable to discover any cause for 

 this dying off of tbe tops. It does not take place in patches but here and 

 there in the forest. It will, of course, require very careful investiga- 

 tions carried out over a series of years before we are in a position to 

 say whether the Chermes is in any way accountable for this state of 

 affairs. 



On examining the cottony patches with a lens, one sees that this 

 white wool-like material forms a covering to a blackish skin. This skin 

 is that of the dried-up stem mother Chermes. At her anal end a portion 

 of a bunch of yellowish brown elliptical glossy eggs is visible, the restof 

 them being hidden beneath the dried-up skin. The eggs are superficially 

 very similar to those to be found upon the Spruce at this period (the 

 beginning of May). These eggs were pi'esent in millions on infested silver 

 firs at the beginning of May 1901. Little larva? were observed hatch- 

 ing out from the eggs about the first week in the month, and these at once 

 crawl up on to the young newly-developed or developing silver fir needles, 

 at that period just bursting through the bud scales, where they appear as 

 minute black specks covering the young bright green tassels of needles. 

 Seen beneath the microscope the young larva? are apparently identical 

 with those to be found at the same time on the Spruce. 



Young Larva. — Red to crimson iu colour, with two large basal 

 autenual joints followed by a longer narrower one, this latter being sur- 

 mounted by a bristle. Three pairs of short legs with two jointed tarsi, 

 nine abdominal segments and a Long curved proboscis. 



Within a few days the young larva? develop a white cottony cover- 

 ing. To the naked eye the young grubs appear to be surrounded by a 

 white fungus. The microscope shows this however to be a white wooly 

 substance which grows or is excreted all over the dorsal surface of the 

 body. Towards the end of the third week in May these small aphids 

 appear to become fullgrown, and they then lay the grape-bunch like 

 masses of eggs of a uew generation. They then die, the dead body skin 

 remaining as a cover or partial cover to the eggs as in the case of the 

 winter stem mother. 



Since the whole of this first series of larvae spend their lives upon 

 the newly developed needles of the year, it becomes evident that this 

 first generation of the year, or a portion of it, is a short-lived one ; only 

 stem females arising from the eggs, a winged generation being entirely 



