1918.] BASHAMBAR Das: The Aphididae of Lahore. 151 
Large resin ducts enter the walls, and the substance readily exudes if they are 
injured; it moreover often congeals on the outside and possesses a characteristic 
odour. 
The number of plant-lice inside at this time is about twenty, but later the num- 
ber increases excessively. The gall shows a steady growth during the rainy months 
of July and August. In late September it is mature. 
Form.—At this time it has quite the appearance of a straight or curved legumin- 
ous fruit, and is popularly referred to asa ‘‘ Phali,’’ the vernacular for a pod. This 
“ pod-gall’ is either uniform in thickness or partly swollen and partly very thin; 
distally it usually narrows into a hard imperforate beak. The galls, which have 
become bent at an early stage, maintain their curvature even when dry, and are not 
unlike small horns: this resemblance has earned for them the vernacular name 
“ Kakkar Singi’’ as already alluded to above. 
Size.—The galls vary in length from five or six inches to about a foot; some 
of the largest galls are more or less straight and may measure up to an ae across. 
The usual thickness is about half an inch. The wall itself is from 54; to +6 of an 
inch thick in fresh specimens, and is soft and yielding as long as the insects are inside. 
The interior is always pink in colour, and is full of teeming aphids in countless 
thousands. 
Opening of the galls.—Birds, squirrels as well as other animals a this time 
nibble at the fruit-like galls and cut holes into them. These holes are utilised by the 
winged insects as an exit. But even when such holes are absent the alate insects, by 
mechanical pressure of their beaks, can cause the galls to crack in places. This hap- 
pens invariably in cases when the galls are protected in muslin bags. 
Dry galls —The empty galls on drying turn brown and woody, often getting 
twisted and contorted into various shapes, with cracks and slits on the sides. They 
remain hanging on the tree sometimes for considerable periods, and are packed with 
the white flocculent secretion of the aphids intermixed with the exuviae, wings and 
dead bodies of the insects. Some galls retain their pink colour. 
They serve as excellent places for the hibernation of spiders and insects like 
Coccinellids, which are usually found inside them. 
Enemies.—This aphid, well-protected inside the galls, is singularly free from the 
attacks of predaceous and parasitic insects. I,ate in the season when the holes 
and cracks are formed occasionally a Coccinellid gets entrance, and once or twice a 
Chrysopa has also been reared from them. No parasites were ever obtained. 
Sometimes from a riddled gall the ants carry off the aphids as food, and it would 
not be surprising if it is found that at least some of the holes are due to the agency 
of ants. They can be easily seen cutting similar round holes in the large and persis- 
tent calyx of the fruit of Withania somniferum inside which Aphis malvoides some- 
times resides. 
Systematic.—The name Pemphigus aedificator we owe to Buckton, but as already 
remarked his descriptive account of the insect is extremely inadequate and defective. 
Evidently little pains were taken to ascertain the proper generic position. 
