ALEURODIDAE 



591 



by carrying them to those plants.^ We have nearly 200 species 

 of Aphidae in Britain,^ and there may perhaps be 800 known 

 altogether. To what extent they may occur in the tropics is 

 luidetermined. Tliere are said to be no native species in New 

 Zealand. 



Fam. 8. Aleurodidae. — Minute Insects, ■with four 7nealy luings, 

 scvcn-jointed antennae, two-jointed feet, terminated hy two claws 

 and CO third process. These minute Insects are at present a source 

 of considerable perplexity, owing to the curious nature of their 

 metamorphosis, and 

 the contradictory 

 accounts given of 

 them. In the earlier 

 stages they are 

 scale -like and qui- 

 escent, being fixed 

 to the under side of 

 a leaf. The French 

 authors Siguoret and 

 Girard state that the 

 young are hatched 

 having visible ap- 

 pendages and seg- 

 mentation, but that 

 after they are 

 attached to the leaf 

 the organs gradu- 

 ally suffer atrophy. 



Maskell states the Fig. 287.— Instars of Ahmodes inwiaculata. Europe, 

 opposite, saying that '^^^ Heegcr.) A, Nyn.pb, fron, above ; B, nymph, 



'- ^ ' ./ o under surface ; C, imago. 



the organs in the 



earliest stages are not usually recognisable, but become faintly 

 visible with the growth of the Insect. Heeger states that 

 the larva undergoes three ecdyses, and he gives the figures 

 we reproduce ; if he be correct it would appear that the 

 nymph undergoes a great development. Eeaumur, on account 

 apparently of their great metamorphosis, treated the species 



' J. New York Ent. Soc. i. 1893, p. 120. See also as to knowledge on the part 

 of ants, Forbes, Eighteenth Rcf. Insects Illinois, 1894, 2)p. 66, etc. 

 ^ Monograph by Buckton, Ray Society, 4 vols. 1879-1883. 



