APHIS. 
107 
Capulets ! Some had heaved anchor and dropped from the 
pip ; others fixed more firmly had died at their post, and 
tucking their legs together under them, hung by their 
beak. In no apple was there any road in or out ; there 
was no chance of their passing to the outer air, or of their 
having come from it ; indeed their speedy death proved 
that change of air did not agree with them. I was parti- 
cularly careful in my search for a via, but there was none. 
I have often seen the same thing in a bloated poplar-leaf ; 
but here is a possibiHty of the egg being laid between the 
cuticles of the leaf, then, the sap -suction commencing, the 
bloat may be caused ; but this is impossible in a huge ap- 
ple, with an inch and a half of pulp in every direction. I 
am unable to explain the mystery ; so, like many other 
wiseacres, I content myself with wondering how, in the 
name of fortune, the Aphides got there ! 
Another odd station for Aphides is on the roots of plants. 
I have found them by hundreds on a thistle-root, closely 
packed together, and almost as white as snow. The 
other day I pulled up a large thistle that grew on an ant- 
hill, and thus I brought to light a whole colony of these 
white Aphides. I had long known of the great value which 
ants set on these little beasts, so I shook down some do- 
zens of them from the thistle-root, among the ants, which 
were all a-swarm at the damage I had done to their dwel- 
ling. No sooner were the ants aware of the presence of 
the Aphides than they began to fondle them with their legs 
— sometimes positively taking them round the neck — to 
tap them on the back with their antennae, and to lick them 
with their tongues ; they then took hold of them with their 
jaws, and lifted them from the ground, and carried them 
with the greatest care, one by one, into the recesses of the 
