APHIDE HONEY. 



273 



willow, and fir, from eight each, the elm from four, 

 and the currant bush from three. 



Their rapid multiplication and very injurious effect 

 cease to be a wonder when we learn something of 

 their habits and capabilities. The male only appears 

 amongst them at intervals, which may be distant, and 

 he has only been well made out by dissection in 

 about twelve species. An impregnated egg having 

 been deposited, very many generations of individuals, 

 formed by a process of interior budding, and born 

 alive, will succeed one another, before the cycle is 

 completed, and the fully-sexed female and male give 

 again origin to the impregnated egg. Usually, some 

 days after the appearance of the male, the oviparous 

 female (B, Fig. 54) begins to deposit her eggs, 

 which, in most species, are relatively enormous, each 

 one (e) equalling in length half the body of the 

 mother. When deposited, they are coated over with 

 a glairy fluid, attaching them to twigs or stipules ; 

 they are then pale, but soon become brown or black, 

 and are capable of bearing the most intense cold of 

 winter. Nor are the Aphides themselves much less 

 hardy. Beckton states that he witnessed the hatching 

 of a young Aphis from the eggs of Siphonophora Rosse 

 (the Rose Aphis), on March 12, 1873, when the ther- 

 mometer stood at 25 , and most species can endure 

 lower temperatures without visible injury. The insect, 

 after leaving the egg, very rapidly grows, and quickly 

 attains its full size, exhibiting in its pseudovaries (false 

 ovaries) developing larvae, which soon begin to make 

 their escape at the rate of many daily. Indeed, the 

 body cavity of the viviparous Aphis, during the summer 



