1918. | BASHAMBAR Das : The Aphididae of Lahore. 145 
innumerable yellow plant-lice, covered over by a white flocculence secreted by six 
rows of wax-glands on their back. The galls ripen in November; the tips of the galls 
are generally narrow and imperforate and their curved shape, in most cases, makes 
them look like miniature horns, hence the vernacular name ‘‘ Singi ’’ from sing (= 
horn). From a crack or a slit on one side of a ripe gall the insects, that have in the 
meantime developed wings, emerge in swarms at this time. The empty galls turn 
brown and woody. They may remain hanging on the tree for more than a year, and 
are conspicuous objects in winter when the tree is devoid of green foliage. 
These galls are supposed to form a valuable drug which is officinal in the Indian 
Pharmacopea ; it is sold in the bazaar at one anna per ounce and is prescribed in 
pulmonary and intestinal disorders of children. Reference to this commercial article 
may be found, besides many Indian works, in Watt’s Dictionary of Economic Products, 
vol. VI, p. 268 and Stewart’s Punjab Plants of 1869, page 47. Both these writers 
express their ignorance about the insect concerned in its manufacture. 
In 1801, C. F. Elliot first observed swarms of flies leaving the galls in November 
at a place called Harnai (Baluchistan), about 3,000 feet above sea level. The tree on 
which he noticed them was, according to him, Pistacia terebinthus, but that probably 
is a mistake as ‘‘ Kakkar Singi’’ galls are only formed on P. integerrima. 
The specimens were sent to the Indian Museum in Calcutta and thence forwarded 
to Buckton, who, as usual, gave a new name to the insect, but supplied an altogether 
too brief description of it, and even that in several points quite wrong. The faint and 
obscure illustration that accompanies the description conveys little more than that 
the insect figured is an ‘‘Aphidine”’ one. The antenna is shown as made up of eight 
or nine joints whose relative lengths cannot be discerned. It is stated that no 
sensoria are present! (Ind. Mus. Notes, vol. III, no. i, pp. 71-73). . 
The apterous viviparous female has not been mentioned at all. 
Though we find that Buckton gives a fairly accurate account of the form, size, 
texture, contents, etc., of a dry gall, it was neither known to him nor was it suspected 
by the authorities at the Indian Museum that it was identical with the well-known 
“Kakkar Singi.’’ 
Except for a passing observation in Tullgren’s systematic work on Pemphigina 
(1909) there is no record of the Aphid in current literature. It is probably for the 
first time here that the true insect and the drug have been connected. The problem 
was being investigated independently on a few Pistacia trees in the Botanical Gardens, 
where the development of the gall was thoroughly followed. On comparison it was 
later discovered that the insects were in every respect the same as those originally 
collected by Elliot and preserved in the Indian Museum in Calcutta. 
MORPHOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION. 
A pterous viviparous female.—Body oval or ovate ; posterior end frequently tucked 
in telescopically. : 
Colour bright yellow to yellowish-orange ; in old individuals even deep orange. 
Legs and antennae hyaline. 
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