1918. | BASHAMBAR Das: The Aphididae of Lahore. 203 
A table for the “ Malviform Group ’’ of Aphis spp. and short accounts of those 
mentioned above are given below separately. A list of the plants on which they have 
been collected is incorporated with the general host index at the end of the paper. 
Aphis rumicis, L. 
Aphis rumicis is a cosmopolitan species and said to be a very general feeder in 
the West. Numerous writers have mentioned it from a host of plants since Linnaeus 
first described it in Syst. Nat. p. 734. Schouteden gives a list of eleven synonyms 
(Cat. Aphids de Belgique, p. 277, 1906). Buckton has furnished a very good colour 
description with a plate (Brit. Aph., vol. II, pl. xiv). Oestlund gives the antennal 
structure and measurements (Aphid. Minn., p. 61, 1887). Gillette has figured the 
cornicle and antennae of the alate female (Jour. Econ. Entom., vol. III, p. 407, 1910). 
Patch illustrates the antennae of a variant specimen with a few notes (Maine Agric. 
Expt. Station Bull. No. 202, 1912). 
There is little difficulty in recognising this insect as it infests only a few plants 
in the Indian plains, and on almost all of them the leaves are turned into pseudo-galls. 
The most favourite host is Solanum nigrum, on which it is shown in the accompany- 
ing plate; others are Cnicus arvensis, Rumex dentata, Chenopodium (rarely), Pyrus 
communts. 
The species is present almost throughout the year, but is most abundant in the 
winter months ; when it is scarce in the plains, during May and June, it can be col- 
lected from the sub-hilly districts. 
This plant-louse is very extensively parasitised by one of the Proctropidae; small 
Scymnus beetles also search them out from their shelters ; ants invariably attend them. 
Aphis medicaginis, Koch. 
Literature :-— 
Koch, Pflanzenlause, p 94, figs. 125, 126 (1857): 
Gillete, Journ. Econ. Entom., vol. I, pp. 177-178 (1908). 
Essig, Pom. Coll. Jour. Bo vol. III, no. 3, p. 527, 1911 (gives description and ne 
Hosts.—Mostly Leguminous plants, rarely other plants. 
Distinguishing characters. —Colour of apterous female warm reddish-brown ; the 
adults shine like glass beads among the droves of dull-coloured young and immature 
specimens ; the basal antennae and tibiae and proximal femora are white and con- 
trast noticeably with the other black parts of these organs. The shining part on the 
back of the adult wingless female is constituted by a huge irregular black blotch that 
covers practically the whole of the abdomen, excepting the anterior one or two seg- 
ments. The alate female has intersegmental black stripes as shown in the figure; 
there are only five or six sensoria on the 3rd article ; cornicles and cauda black. 
The insect, though readily recognisable from the above description, has on several 
occasions been confused with A. rumicis, L. and A. cardui, L. These two plant- 
lice, as listed in Lefroy’s Indian Insect Life, p. 747, from Leguminous plants, are in 
all likelihood A. medicaginis. The ‘‘Indigo Aphis’’ referred to in Indian Museum 
Notes, vol. VI, p. 45, is also evidently this insect, 
