No. XV.B.] APPENDIX. 239 



Upon examining the plants in hothouses, live aphides in the larva 

 state are now feeding ; but, after a minute "microscopical view, I have 

 noticed some anatomical differences which lead me to infer that this aphis 

 is possibly not the vastator, although a species very nearly allied to it. 

 Under these circumstances, I must defer passing a decided opinion until 

 I have observed it in the final or winged state. 



It is really of but little consequence to the husbandman to know the 

 particular aphis which causes injury to any particular plant, for every 

 aphis is equally destructive, and wherever there are abundance of aphides, 

 there does the death of the plant occur. From this view of the question, 

 I now caution gardeners to watch the aphides which attack the strawberry 

 plants, and destroy them, together with their eggs, as far as possible, 

 otherwise they must not be surprised to find their strawberry plants 

 destroyed, or rendered unfruitful through their agency. 



Let every farmer, gardener, and naturalist now record their observa- 

 tions upon aphides, that the talent of the country may be concentrated 

 upon their eradication. 

 1847. 



E.EPOET OF Aphides foe Febetjaet 1847. 



During the past month we have had both cold and warm weather, for 

 the season of the year. At the commencement, the temperature was as. 

 low as ever observed in this country, and subsequently the weather has 

 been so mild that a great stimulus has been given to vegetation, and 

 the buds have put forth as though spring had commenced in real earnest. 

 Such weather has been unfavourable to insect Ufa, and consequently but 

 few facts have come under our notice. Our great enemy, at the present 

 time, the vastator, has been extensively destroyed in the open air, and, 

 since the frost, I have not myself observed a siagle specimen living in 

 that situation. 



I have received, during the month, Jerusalem artichokes, on the roots 

 of which a large aphis was feeding. 



Aphides, as a general rule, bear frost weU, for I took a crocus covered 

 with vastators, and froze them with ice and salt, but, on being brought 

 into a warm room, they resumed their activity, and again fed upon the 

 plants. 



In greenhouses the vastators are now feeding on various plants. 

 Several of my crocuses, on which they were allowed to feed undisturbed, are 

 now completely killed, and numerous others are on the high road to destruc- 

 tion. It appears that crocuses, like the potato plants, suffer most when the 

 leaf is required to deposit the solid matter for the bulb of the next year. 

 In my peregrinations round London, I have observed a few vastators upon 

 nearly all the plants exposed for sale, which doubtless, during the next 

 month, will multiply at their ordinary rate of production, and thus form a 

 stock amply sufficient to destroy our crops alone. The tulips have, in most 

 instances, some of the destroying creatures upon their leaves, though they 

 may escape notice by fixing themselves ou that part of the leaf which is 

 sheltered from rain or wind. During the last month some of my tulips 

 have been entirely killed by them. The creatures prefer some varieties of 



