110 
MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN SCALES. 
My father’s gardener, amongst many others, enquired if I did not think the 
red spotted appearance was to be attributed to the astonishing number of 
Lady Birds, so prevalent in almost every garden in the neighbourhood ; that 
such being his opinion, he had ordered his family to destroy all they could 
find in his garden : I soon undeceived the cruel man, by plucking a plum-leaf 
curled up by these aphides, and placing two or three Lady Birds upon it ; 
they soon cleared the leaf by devouring these aphides before his eyes ; and he 
greatly astonished, hastened home, and checked the destructive hands of his 
family. 
Your readers have no doubt also observed on the currant bushes, and some 
of the trees, an unusual quantity of honey-dew, as it is generally termed : 
and of which, so erroneously supposed to fall from above, I shall endeavour 
to point out and explain the real nature and cause. In its first state it is a 
limpid, glutinous, and transparent fluid, much resembling gum found 
occasionally upon cherrj^ trees, which these aphides have the means of 
emitting in little globules, from a setiform tube, and five or six small 
apertures on each side of the body, and by jerking these little globules off 
their bodies, they cause them to fall on the leaves below, and dissolving by 
the natural dew of night, incorporate, and spread over the leaf in the manner 
of a varnish as we see when dry. The above curious fluid, little inferior to 
honey, is of infinite service to bees and ants, which sip the nectareous juice 
with avidity, and the manner in which these creatures discharge it may be 
observed with a powerful magnifying lens, and more particularly by the 
species which infest the honeysuckle. Many other insects possess the same 
faculty of discharging a glutinous fluid ; for instance, an insect called 
Cochineal, and also a tribe of insects called Coccus, whose gluten is more resinous, 
and which have at various times committed so much damage to the fruit trees 
in the nurseries around London. I shall endeavour further to prove, that 
certain species of these insects alone are the cause, and have the i^ower of 
imparting that sweet taste which this dew or varnish possesses, being.endowed 
with a tube or syphon, which they insert into the sap vessels of the plants, 
upon which they are found, and by abstracting the nutriment of the plant, 
stagnation in the part ensues, and causes the leaves to curl up in the manner 
we see them ; and also by observing, that the honey-dew is found upon no 
plants but those which contain these aphides, consequently had it been simply 
a natural but uncommon dew, every species of vegetation must have been 
affected alike. 
Observing, with the greatest concern, the Pea Crop is likely to be affected, 
in a greater or less degree, by a species of this tribe of insects (Aphis Pisi) 
of which there are no less than forty-five indigenous species, and as great 
numbers of these aphides, or pea-lice, and Lady Birds, have been supposed 
by persons ignorant of the cause, to come over by easterly winds, I shall 
proceed to prove the absurdity and fallacy of those ideas, and to account for 
the multitude of them, at particular seasons, in a more natural manner, by 
attributing it to the incredible faculty of rapid propagation which they 
