1918. | BASHAMBAR Das: The Aphididae of Lahore. 143 
Thistles of the genus Carduus are foreign to the Indian plains, their place being 
taken by species of Cnicus, which are only infested by A.rumicis,L. A. carduı, L. 
I have never so far collected from any part of India, nor have I come across 
A.rumicis on any Leguminous plant. À. medicaginis (Koch) possesses certain cha- 
racters in common with both these species, but is quite distinct, papilionaceous herbs 
and shrubs forming its most favourite hosts. | 
Schouteden has described no new species from India, but had placed query marks 
against several as doubtful. 
Thus, useful as it is, the list given by Lefroy can only be accepted as accurate 
with a certain amount of reserve. 
Very few collections of Aphididae have been made in this country, and most of 
those in the possession of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, are at present said to have 
been sent away for identification. But formerly there was hardly a single entomo- 
logical collection or museum, known to me in India, where one could go and find 
even half a dozen species of properly-determined aphids. Such a state of affairs, 
though not undesirable from certain points of view, acts as a serious initial difficulty 
in the way of a student. 
Another almost insurmountable obstacle that a student in India encounters is 
the deplorable lack of up-to-date literature on this family. Ordinary libraries do not 
pretend to supply it, and in the best libraries expected to possess literature, 2.e. 
those at Pusa and Calcutta, it was not so well represented as it ought to be, and 
perhaps could not be unless specially ordered. The literature is widely scattered in 
numerous journals and in many different languages, and often being out of print is 
unobtainable through the book-sellers. This want we have in part met by procuring 
for the libraries of the Punjab University and Government College most of the recent 
works on these insects, either through the research grant from the Government or 
through the courtesy of Western Aphidologists. 
In Lahore one is handicapped by the lack of even a convenient local flora for 
ready reference to the names of plants, which is quite an essential factor in the study 
of plant-lice. = 
Besides these extraneous difficulties the systematic study of this family has some 
peculiar disabilities of its own. In spite of the partiality shown towards these insects 
Difficulties in the group by distinguished workers for a long time, the sad reproach 
ASC in the words of a well-known entomologist (Lefroy) ‘‘ that 
the classification of Aphids is a disgrace to Entomology’’ is perhaps too true: pains 
are no doubt being taken by some modern authors to remove this reproach. 
With a full knowledge of the difficulties mentioned above, an attempt has been 
made to start a preliminary study of the Indian species of this important group of 
insects. A part of the result, with whatever shortcomings it may inevitably have, is 
presented in the form of this paper. | 
_A list of the Lahore Aphids, dealt with in this paper, is given below; a host 
index for these will be found at the end of the paper. 
