212 



NATURE STUDY AND LIFE 



black-cherry aphid. If these are kept fresh, the plant 

 lice will desert the leaves and gather about the buds on 

 the twigs. If they are carefully watched, preferably with 

 a hand lens, they may be seen to lay their eggs, generally, 

 in the angle between the bud and twig. The eggs are 

 visible to the unaided eye and appear at first as oval, 



yellowish-green 

 bodies, which turn 

 in a short time to 

 shining black. 

 The egg laying is 

 an interesting 

 process, a sight of 

 which will repay 

 much patient 

 observation. The 

 mystery to me 

 always is how so 

 infinitesimal a 

 brain can know 

 how to lay eggs 

 at all, much less 

 learn where to 

 put them so that the young may find their natural food 

 on hatching in the spring. 



If this is not possible, the children will certainly be 

 able any time during the winter to bring in cherry twigs 

 that will have the eggs behind the buds. If these be 

 taken into the schoolroom about the time the buds burst 

 in the spring, the eggs will soon hatch into tiny black 

 aphids. These have no wings and are all females, and 



Fig. 90. Cherry Twigs covered with Aphids 



