512 
ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW YORK 
CABBAGE Arms. YOUNG LICE. WINGLESS FEMALES. 
lice has recently been located, which has been wholly broken 
up by these destroyers, not a living insect being left. 
The ruta baga or Swedish turnip also frequently suffers from 
this Cabbage aphis, the under side of the curled leaves bcino- 
sometimes densely covered with them, of all sizes. In August, 
September and October, the old wingless females are seen, resting 
stationary, with their bills inserted into the leaf pumping out its 
juices, surrounded by their young broods, all similarly employed, 
with here and there a winged male walking lazily about over tho 
backs of his kindred. 
The cabbage was no doubt introduced upon this continent with 
the first arrival of European settlers, it is so readily grown from 
the seed. And this aphis no doubt followed it ere many years, 
the live insects or their eggs having probably been brought here 
in cabbages forming part of the stock of provisions on shipboard. 
It has long been well known in our country. In 1791, the old 
New York Agricultural Society, in its circular of inquires (Trans¬ 
actions, vol. i, p. 14), asks for replies to tho query, “ Do you know 
how the lice or flies that infest cabbages and turnips can be over 
come?”—showing that seventy years ago this insect was a pest in 
the country, of such importance that a remedy for it was earnestly 
desired. 
Upon particularly inspecting a colony of these plant lice, it will 
be observed that the smaller, young ones or larvae, are egg-shaped 
and of a dull pale greeen color, and their bodies are dusted over 
with pruiuose matter resembling a pale grayish powder. Their 
antennae and legs are smoky or black, and in some individuals a 
row of minute black dots may be discovered along each side of 
the back, and on the hind part other dots inside of the row. The 
smallest, recently born larvae, however, differ from the others in 
being destitute of any gray mealy coating, and also in being more 
v . y narrow and somewhat cylindrical in their form, 
with the head narrower than the anterior end of 
the body, and the antennas and legs dull white. 
The females, or largest wingless individuals in 
J iipfmM I n. the colony are also coated over with gray meal- 
like powder. They are less than a tenth of an 
J inch in length, egg-shaped and of a dull ycllow- 
? V ish green color, the eyes black and also two large 
Fig. 8. Wingiose fomaio. spots on the crown, and one on each side of the 
