200 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



Our more dainty and delicate fruits, at least such as 

 are usually so accounted, the apricot, the peach, and the 

 nectarine, originally of Asiatic origin, are not less sub- 

 ject to the empire of insects than the homelier natives of 

 Europe. Certain Aphides form a convenient and shel- 

 tered habitation for themselves, by causing portions of 

 the leaves to rise into hollow red convexities ; in these 

 they reside, and, with their rostrum pumping out the 

 sap, in time occasion them to curl up, and thus deform 

 the tree and injure the produce. The fruit is attacked 

 by various other enemies of this class, against which we 

 find it not easy to secure it : wasps, earwigs, flies, wood- 

 lice, and ants, which last communicate to it a disagree- 

 able flavour, all share with us these ambrosial treasures ; 

 the first of them as it were opening the door, by making 

 an incision in the rind, and letting in all the rest. — The 

 nucleus of the apricot is also sometimes inhabited by the 

 caterpillar of a moth, which devouring the kernel causes 

 the fruit to fall prematurely a . — In this country, how- 

 ever, these fruits may be regarded as mere luxuries, and 

 therefore are of less consequence ; but in North Ame- 

 rica they constitute an important part of the general pro- 

 duce, at least the peach, serving both as food for swine, 

 and furnishing by distillation a useful spirit. The ra- 

 vages committed upon them there by insects are so se- 

 rious, that premiums have been offered for extirpating 

 them. A species of weevil, perhaps a JRynchites of 

 Herbst, enters the fruit when unripe, probably laying its 

 eggs within the stone, and so destroys them. And two 

 kinds of Zygcena, F., by attacking the roots do a still 



* M. de la Hire in Reaum. ii. 478. 



