The Rantankerous Brood of Aphides-B y e. Dwight sand 



New 

 erSOfl Hampshire 



A GROUP OF INTERESTING BUT TROUBLESOME INSECTS ON WHICH WE YEARLY SQUANDER 

 SEVERAL TONS OF PARIS GREEN IN BLISSFUL IGNORANCE OF THE TRUE REMEDY 



JUST as the apple buds burst open in 

 the spring close examination will re- 

 veal many little green aphides assem- 

 bled upon them. Usually they remain un- 

 noticed for two or three weeks, until the 

 foliage commences to curl up, and inside of 

 the rolled leaf are found myriads of the little 

 villains. Had the twigs been carefully ex- 

 amined during the winter especially around 

 the buds, there would have been seen many 

 tiny, glossy black eggs, which were laid the 

 previous autumn while the leaves were fall- 



A familiar sight as the apple buds are opening. 

 Myriads of green aphis sucking oul the juices 



ing. From each egg a young aphis is 

 hatched a few days before the first buds 

 open, who at once stations herself upon a 

 swelling bud ready for a meal as soon as the 

 first bit of foliage peeps out. The young 

 aphis grows rapidly. 



The outer skin of all insects is more or 

 less hardened, and when a certain amount 

 of growth has taken place, further increase 

 is impossible owing to the unyielding nature 

 of the skin. It therefore splits down the 

 centre of the back and is thrown off, and 

 while the new skin is hardening growth 

 occurs. Thus, feeding all the time and 

 growing rapidly, the young aphis discards 

 her old dress every few days. In a week or 

 ten days she is full-grown, with her fifth and 

 last new garb. Where aphides are numerous 

 these little white molted skins become quite 

 abundant. Mrs. Aphis now proceeds to 

 rear her family, which is exceedingly large 

 and grows rapidly: from three to five or six 

 young are born directly, without eggs, every 

 day or so for ten days or two weeks, a colony 



of fifty to a hundred young being thus formed 

 around each mother by the end of this time. 

 In this way the aphides soon cover the young 

 leaves and unfolding apple blossoms. Each 

 one grows to maturity in about the same 

 length of time and likewise becomes a mother 

 in ten days or two weeks after birth, for cur- 

 iously all the aphides during the spring and 

 summer are females. The individual which 

 hatched from the egg may thus become the 

 grandmother of hundreds of young before 

 she dies. It is to this remarkable power of 

 rapid reproduction that injury by aphides is 

 due, for the damage done by an individual 

 is usually insignificant. Thus with the aphi- 

 des of the pea-vines, commonly called pea 

 lice, where on May first but one aphis could 

 be found after several minutes search, by the 

 end of June its progeny will have so increased 

 that all the vines over many acres are covered. 

 Mrs. Aphis is an exceedingly sharp-tongued 

 individual. Her head is prolonged into a 

 long tube-like beak which rests upon the 

 surface of the leaf. Within it are four very 

 slender, bristle-like little lancets which are 

 plunged into the tissues of the leaf until it is 

 so lacerated that the sap exudes and is drawn 

 up into the mouth through the beak. With 

 thousands upon thousands of these little 

 pumps drawing out its life, is it any wonder 

 that the leaves of the tree or plant curl up 

 and fall exhausted? With the food plant 

 ruined, starvation for the aphides would en- 

 sue were it not that when food becomes 

 scarce, their style of dress changes and with 

 the last molt they become winged and can 



The white molted skins— they are shed five times — 

 often disfigure the leaves. Portion of lily leaf 



Ants " farm " the aphides for the honey-dew that 

 they secrete. In this photograph an ant is seen gently 

 tapping an aphis. The corn aphis is specially nursed 

 by the ants and lays her eggs in the ants' nest 



fly to new pastures. "Fly to new pastures" 

 in many cases they do literally, for after one 

 or two generations occur upon the apple, one 

 species migrates to various grasses; another 

 which occurs in early spring on plums mi- 

 grates to hops; and many kinds migrate 

 from one weed to another as the season of 

 each passes. 



In such migrations they are often aided by 

 their foster-mothers, the ants, for many species 

 are carefully cared for and guarded by the 

 ever diligent ants. A peculiar, sweetish 

 liquid called "honey dew," is secreted by 

 the aphides of which the ants are extremely 

 fond. To secure this they herd the aphides, 

 150 



much as if they were little green cattle. 

 Frequently an ant may be seen tapping an 

 aphid with her antennae, upon which a drop 

 of the honey dew is exuded and quickly 

 lapped up. Thus, the ants are probably en- 

 tirely responsible for carrying the young 

 aphides which affect the strawberry roots 

 in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and 

 elsewhere, from the foliage down to the roots, 

 and for carrying them from plant to plant, as 

 the plants wither from their injury. The 

 melon louse is similarlv carried bv the ants 



The mother aphis and one of her numerous progeny 

 newly born. The pea aphis (enlarged twelve times) 



from hill to hill. But most remarkable of all 

 is the case of the corn-root aphis, which lays 

 its eggs in ants' nests in the fall, where they 

 are carefully guarded all winter and in the 

 spring the young aphides are carried by the 

 ants to the roots of their favorite food plants. 

 But the aphides have enemies as well as 

 friends, to whom we are the more indebted. 

 Small, parasitic wasp-like flies lay their eggs 

 upon or within them, and from which little 

 white maggots hatch and feed within the 

 aphides, soon killing them. As it dies, the 

 skin of the aphid distends into a small 

 brown bladder-like shell, from which the 

 adult parasite emerges through a neat round 

 door, which it cuts out for its exit. Such 

 parisitized aphides should never be destroyed, 

 so that the beneficial parasites may multiply. 

 These parasites multiply even more rapidly 

 than the aphides in warm, sunshiny weather, 

 so that within a few days myriads of aphides 

 which were destroying a crop may very 

 quickly disappear through their good work. 

 Many other larger insects, such as the well- 



The winter eggs of the aphis may be seen on twigs 

 of various plants. This is a portion of willow 



