4 
BRITISH APHIDES. 
ETYMOLOGY OF APHIS. 
Altlioiigli we have no certain evidence to show that 
Aristotle or any of the Greek naturalists paid attention 
to Aphides, the word Aphis distinctly points to a Greek 
origin. I believe the word cannot be found in classical 
Greek or Latin. Yirgil even, whilst describing rubigo 
in the Georgies,* the effects of blasting mildew on the 
grain, and the unbidden crew of graceless guests 
which choke the fields, appears to make little or no 
allusion to the host of insect pests and creeping blights 
which, doubtless, in his day, as now, disheartened the 
cultivator of the Italian plains. At any rate, Virgil 
gives us no description by which we may identify the 
Aphis or plant-louse. 
The great Linnseus did not overlook these minute 
creatures in his ^ Systema YaturaB,’ in which work he 
makes the first step towards classification on a good 
basis. There can be little doubt that, in giving the 
name Aphis to this family of insects, he intended to 
suggest some peculiarity in its economy ; yet now it is 
not easy to say what quality he wished to imply by 
the term. 
Probably Linnseus coined the word, with reference to 
the office of the unique organs known as the nectaries 
or cornicles, which exude and sometimes project the 
so-called honey-dew,’’ or sweet secretion elaborated 
by Aphides from the juice of leaves. 
Although alive to the difficulty of the occurrence of 
the ^ in the plural Aphides^ the author suggests a 
derivation from the verb in the sense emitto. 
To a writer in ' JSTotes and Queries,’! who singularly 
is the authors namesake, he is indebted for the re- 
mark : the word Aphis, like some other quasi classical 
words imported into science, is not certain as to its 
derivation. It appears probable that it may have 
* Georgies, 1, verse 151, et seq. 
t ‘Notes and Queries/ vol. vi, p. 140, ser. 3rd. 
