August, 18fi9. 
161 
ORGHRRD 
GRRDE 
of this pest in such vast numbers as to very 
reasonably spread great alarm among grow- 
ers of grain. A great number of commu- 
nications accompanied by specimens have 
been received at this Station and it seems 
^ very appropriate that all that is known re- 
garding a destructive pest, such as this, 
should be laid before the farmers. 
The fact of their presence in such vast 
numbers this season is doubtless due to 
the mildness of the past winter and the dry 
weather of this and last seasons. It is an 
established fact that dry weather promotes 
their multiplication and that continued 
damp weather aids greatly in their des- 
truction. 
Fig. 1 604 represents a wingless female of 
the grain lice, or Aphis arenas. It is about 
1-10 of an inch long, of a light or yellow- 
ish green color, which in many individuals 
changes to an orange tinge, as the heads 
of grain begin to change color be- 
fore ripening. The ends of the femurs, 
tibiae, feet, antenna', and honey tubes, are 
black. The compound eyes are dull red in 
color. Each louse is provided with a short 
stout beak or 
sucking tube. Fig. 
1603 show r s the 
wings borne b y 
some of the lice. 
These are si mple 
in structure, the 
hinder one being 
provided with a 
hook w h i c h 
grasps a fold in 
the anterior wing 
Fig. 1605. during flight thus 
holding them together. The antenna of 
Aphis avence , as shown in Fig. 1604, has six 
joints. The outline drawings at the right 
of the same Fig. show the basal joints and 
the last joint and its tip much enlarged. 
This louse in affecting the grains mention- 
ed above, first attacks the leaves and stems 
V, usually resting upon them head downwards. 
When the insect has once inserted its suck- 
ing tube it usually remains for some time 
in the position taken. The winged ones do 
all the migrating and to these is due the 
spread of their kind. 
One of the most singular ami interesting 
facts regarding this and other plant lice is 
that they are ovaviviparous, that is, the 
eggs are hatched within the body of the 
mother and the young are thus produced 
alive. This continues during the summer 
until just before winter sets in when the 
first males of the season are produced: mat- 
ing then takes place and eggs are laid from 
which issue the first females of the follow- 
ing spring. These are ovaviviparous like 
their progenitors of the preceding season. 
To this fact, under favorable circumstan- 
ces, their enormous multiplication of num- 
bers is due. The birth o the young lice 
seems to take place mainly during the night 
and I have frequently noticed in the early 
morning the little ones clustering about the 
mother each doing its share towards with- 
drawing the life juices of the plant bearing 
them. 
Dr. Fitch, formerly N. Y. State Entomol- 
ogist. made a special study of these insects 
and the following observations by him give 
some idea of the enormous rapidity with 
which these creatures multiply. “I placed 
several young lice the morning after they 
were born, upon some grain growing in a 
flower pot and on the third morning after- 
wards, I found four little ones around each 
of them, showing that the wingless ones come 
to maturity in three days. * * * A single one 
producing four daily and these becoming 
equally prolific when they are three days 
old ,her descendants in twenty days will ram 
her upwards of two millions and will be 
increasing at the rate of a million daily.” 
If the lice would continue to remain scat- 
tered upon the stems and leaves only, their 
injury would not be so great, hut as the 
heads of grain begin to form, the plant’s 
most nutritrous juices are concentrated 
within them and here the lice collect, in- 
serting their beaks about the base of the 
kernels, thus taking from them the nourish- 
ment needed for their development. I 
have taken from a field of wheat on our 
Station, four heads that were completely 
covered with these lice which in several in- 
stances numbered upwards of 150 individ- 
uals on each head. Such heads cannot 
amount to anything. 
Where is the farmer to expect help from 
this pest? is the question so commonly 
asked throughout the above named section. 
Damp weather tends to destroy them; but 
their numbers have been too great to be 
thus destroyed this year. The lady-bird 
beetles, recognized by their hemispherical 
bodies and red color, spotted with black, 
prey largely upon these. At this writing 
their larvae are doing great good in this way. 
Kerosene emulsion containing the following 
mixture: 1 quart soft soap, 1 pint kerosene, 
1 quart hot water, thoroughly mixed and 
fifteen or twenty times as much water as 
kerosene added, is a sure remedy for the 
lice; but I have found by trial that field ap- 
plication of this is impracticable, because the 
lice are so protected that a sufficient num- 
ber of them cannot be destroyed. 
It is to a four winged parasite, represent- 
ed in Fig. 1602, about .12 of an inch long, that 
we are to look for the greatest good. This 
lays an egg within the body wall of the 
louse repeating the operation until the eggs 
are exhausted. From these are hatched the 
larvae which after feeding upon the vitals 
of their hosts, go into the pupa state and 
soon emerge in the form shown in Fig. 
1602, to go on their mission of egg laying. 
Thus many more of their kind are produced, 
which, in their turn, contribute to the de- 
struction of hosts of plant lice. The louse 
affected by the larva of this parasite, be- 
comes dull gray in color and greatly dis- 
tended. Fig. 1605 shows the form of one 
of these in which the body wall is cut away 
at the back, thus exposing to view the par- 
asite which, in this case, has almost reach- 
ed maturity. 
The number of abortive kernels to be 
Fig. 1602. 
found on heads of wheat badly affected, is 
astonishingly great and must result in seri- 
ous loss to the farmer. He can only hope 
that seasons to come \\ ill not he character- 
ized by the presence of such a destructive 
pest. 
A Mew Grape Pent In the South went. 
A beetle, new to entomological literature 
in the role of a grape pest, has been sent to 
us from Arizona by one of our correspon- 
dents, Mr. William J. Howerton, of Flo- 
rence, Pinal County. It proves to be Gas- 
troidea formosa, Say, one of the Flea-beetles, 
of which the habits have not been previous- 
ly recorded. The eggs from which pro- 
ceed the only brood so far determined are 
deposited in January and February, in clus- 
ters on the under side of the leaves of Cana- 
gre or Tuberous-rooted Rhubarb, a native 
plant of Arizona, and the beetle’s natural 
food plant. The imagos appear in great 
numbers in March and the early part of 
April, when they attack the leaves of the 
grapes, and this year have done considera- 
ble damage to vineyards in Pinal County. 
Some vines are greatly damaged while oth- 
ers near by may be scarcely touched, and 
whole vineyards are apparently exempt 
while others within a quarter of a mile are 
considerably infested. The remedy will be 
to spray the Canagre, with one of the ar- 
senical mixtures, when the larvae are in 
full force feeding upon the leaves, which is 
February and March in Arizona.— Insect Life, 
