The Blight Fly 
27 
the whole of it with its progeny in the 
course of two days. A rough computation 
made has shown that a single aphis may in 
one year become the progenitrix of an 
offspring which would, if counted, many 
times equal in number the total human 
population of the world, which illustrates 
at a glance that their numbers in a single 
garden are quite past finding out. By far 
the greater number of aphides are wingless, 
while some again possess large wings. 
Probably this fact has given rise to the 
notion which many have, that nearly all 
aphides are of the female sex. It is quite 
possible that a large number are more or 
less abortive or imperfect females, which 
phenomena we have interesting examples 
of in the worker bees and wasps, which 
have, curiously, only the power, and that 
a very limited one, of producing males, 
and males only, under certain circum- 
stances. Numberless are the remedies 
tried to reduce these insects in number — 
tobacco, soapsuds, quassia, and untold 
quantities of other nameless mixtures — but 
without much effect. There is but one 
real remedy, and that is Nature. 
