1918.] BASHAMBAR DAS : The Aphididae of Lahore. 195 
and the description very similar to that given by Pergande for the ‘‘ stem-mothers,’’ 
which hatch out from the eggs in early spring in the United States, but not having 
read an account of them then it was difficult to guess that the root-feeding apterous 
form, so different in size and colour from the winged insects on the plants, could be 
the same. Seedling experiments in the laboratory were started to establish their 
identity. 
Alate females were brought in from the fields and fed on young seedlings which 
were constantly changed, the young being carefully removed with a camel hair brush. 
The greenish young, with their reddish intercornicular band, changed in colour as they 
grew in size after each moult. The russet colour gradually spread ultimately over the 
whole body. 
À second series of experiments were at the same time continued with apterous 
females and a few pupae from the underground parts of the seedlings. The winged 
females produced from these were similar to those found on the plants, and the apterous 
females that developed in the tubes were in no way different to those usually met 
with underground. , 
Conclusion.—The conclusion that I arrived at is that this form has developed 
a habit of feeding on the parts of the seedlings below the surface. The winged forms 
creep out and spread the species to different plants and fields. In March and April 
they may again be secured on the rhizomes of the common Cynodon dactylon, in 
moist places. j 
Loss.—The species has been, in my opinion, the cause of very considerable loss 
to wheat fields, although its existence has been so far altogether unnoticed. 
Natural check.—The only check that nature has provided is a small blackish 
Scymnus (sordidus ?) that feeds on it in the larval and imago stages. Below ground 
it is singularly free from the attacks of internal parasites as well as from Syrphid 
larvae. 
Genus Toxoptera (Koch). 
Toxoptera is an easily recognisable genus, on account of its possessing structural 
features which combine a peculiar wing venation with the rest of the characters belong- 
ing to the subfamily Aphidineae. The cubitus in the fore-wing is only once forked, 
while in other genera it is forked twice. This is the normal condition in T'oxoptera, 
while in others only abnormal individuals of this type are met with occasionally. 
In other respects it very much resembles either a Myzus or an Aphis. 
The species definitely recorded from India so far appears to be only one; the 
cosmopolitan Tox. aurantii (Fonse.), which is known from Europe, America and Asia. 
It has been reported from Bengal, Southern India and the tea-growing hill stations. 
But the orange plant, its chief host in the neighbourhood of Lahore at least, seems to 
be quite immune as I have never collected it here on the orange. 
Tox. aurantii is the same as the insect named for the Indian Museum by Buck- 
ton as Ceylonia theaeicola, upon tea bushes (vide Ind. Mus. Notes, vol. II, no.i,p. 40, 
and Ind, Ins. Life, p.748). It has been referred to again in Indian Museum Notes, 
