Say 
iS) 
D 
0% 
1918. | BASHAMBAR Das: The Aphididae of Lahore. 
Literature :-— 
Koch, Die Pflanzenläuse. - 
Buckton, Monogr. Brit. Aph., II, p. 64. 
van der Goot, Zur Systematik der Aphiden, pp. 96-97. 
Stebbing, Ind. Mus. Notes, VI, 1913, p. 70 (only referred to as Aphis sp. from Dehra Dun), 
Distinguishing marks.—This Aphid, so destructive to peaches in Northern India, 
may be at once recognised by its mode of attack in badly twisting and curling the 
leaves, in the folds of which it lies well protected and reproduces extensively. It 
exudes large quantities of sticky ‘‘ honey-dew,’’ which dries up in the form of a thin 
pallicle on the inside of the leaf (‘‘ pseudogalls’’) and scales off when the leaf is 
broken open. . 
The species is a small yellowish-green insect with one or more darker green 
stripes on the back; the cornicles are black, specially near the tip; the cauda is 
hardly visible from above, where there are prominent hairs; the winged females have 
a large black blotch on the back, accompanied by three or four large black spots on 
the lateral sides. | 
The camera lucida drawings show the morphological characters fairly well; the 
colour and accounts of the size of this insect will be found, given quite correctly, by 
several European authors. 
Brachycaudus pruni resembles in several particulars another peach-infesting 
Aphid, known in America as the “ Green Peach-Aphis’’ Myzus persicae, Schrank 
(—Rhopalosiphum dianthi, Sulz.). 
Both are of a similar colour in the body and have a tendency to turn pink; the 
pupae have three dorsal stripes on the back and the alate females in both are furnished 
with.a big blotch on the abdomen. As the two are frequently found together on the 
same plant one might easily confuse one with the other. 
The following points would differentiate the two with readiness :— 
Myzus persicae have larger bodies and longer antennae and legs; the antennae 
are placed on frontal tubercles which are large and produced into a rounded process 
towards the inside ; the prominent cauda and clavate cornicles are besides further 
characters not found in the ‘‘ Peach-curl Aphis,’ in which the antennae are implanted 
directly over the head without any frontal tubercles between them. 
A ppearance.-~This Aphid is one of the worst insect-pests that the peach-growers 
have to contend against throughout Northern India. The leaves are so badly twisted 
and contorted into pseudogalls and the trees rendered so sickly and unsightly, that 
they can be recognised at a glance even from a distance. ‘The leaves appear closely 
crowded and never expand fully; they turn whitish and in some cases pinkish in 
colour. 
Pseudogalls.—The insects sit on the under sides of the leaves along the veins, 
with their beaks inserted into the growing cells of the vascular tissue. They appro- 
ptiate all the nourishment that comes to the leaf and thus arrest its growth, particu- 
larly in the length. The portions of the membrane or lamina that are free to grow 
are those enclosed between the veins, so that in their growth they arch outwards and 
