114 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
ence which occasioned its surprising multiplication then, felt also by the 
Grain Aphis, causing it to re-nppear in our grain fields ? The two insects 
being so intimately related, it is a mystery beyond the reach of human 
comprehension, how some hidden influence comes to operate upon the one, 
causing itto multiply and increase so astonishingly, whilst the other remains 
passive and not in the least affected by it. 
This insect is not limited to the extensive hop plantations in the central 
parts of this State, but appears to have everywhere overrun the hop vines, 
both wild and cultivated. It was abundant the past summer in my own 
neighborhood, and specimens were also sent me from St. Lawrence county, - 
whereby we know that its range extends to the eastern and northern con¬ 
fines of the State, but farther than this we do not possess any definite 
information. 
This Aphis appears to be identical with that wh(ch has long been known 
in Europe as the worst enemy of the hop, and which sixty-five years ago 
received its scientific name, Aphin Humuli or the Hop Aphis, from the Ger¬ 
man naturalist Schrank (Fauna Boica, vol. ii, p. 110.) Messrs. Kirby and 
Spence, in their introduction to Entomology (American edition, p. 135,) 
speak of the damage inflicted by this insect as follows: “Upon the presence 
or absence of Aphides, the crop of every year depends; so that the hop- 
grower is wholly at the mercy of these insects. They are the barometer 
that indicates the vise and fall of his wealthy as of a very important branch 
of the revenue, the difference in the amount of the duty on hops being 
often as much as £200,000 per annum, more or less, in proportion as 
this fly prevails or the contrary.” This statement forcibly shows what 
a direct interest our own government has in patronizing these investiga¬ 
tions in which I am employed—this one little insect, in years when it is 
numerous, taking from the revenue of the British government half a million 
of dollars I 
My own researches upon this insect are obviously too limited as yet, to 
enable me to give such a particular history of its habits and operations, as 
its importance merits. I therefore present the following account from the 
London Gardener’s Chronicle, for the year 1854, page 429: 
“ As soon as the Aphides settle upon the hops, they suck the underside 
of the leaves, and immediately deposit their young, which are viviparous, 
and have the singular faculty of propagating their species within a few 
hours after their birth; and in this manner many generations are produced 
without the intervention of the fully formed Aphis fly; indeed, upon one 
hill of hops, millions of lice are born and die, neither parents nor progeny 
having ever attained the condition of the perfect insect. When the first 
attack of these flics upon the hops is severe, and early in the season, the 
growth of the plant is commonly stopped in the course of three or four 
weeks. If the attack be late, that is about mid-summer or afterwards, the 
vine has then attained so much strength that it struggles on against the 
blight, to its disadvantage, and the result is a total failure of the crop at 
least; for the leaves fall off, and the fruit branches being already formed, 
there is no chance of recovery. At this time, and in this condition, the stench 
from the hop plantation is most offensive. * * * * 
“ The progress and usual termination of the Aphis blight may be thus 
