State Agricultural Society. 
503 
full assurance upon this point. A comparison of this aphis upon the 
burning bush with that upon the pigweed shows these insects to be 
identical in every particular, in each of the stages of their develop¬ 
ment. Although Mr. Walker ranks them as distinct species, it will 
be seen that the description which he gives of Aphis Euonymi (List 
of Homopt. Ins. in British Musuem, p. 987) is the same, almost word 
for word, with that of Aphis Rumicis (ibid., p. 983). 
Further researches will no doubt detect this aphis upon several 
other plants and trees in addition to those named above. The list 
now given, however, amply suffices to show how numerous are the 
kinds and how dissimilar are the qualities of the vegetation on which 
it feeds. It seems almost increditable that the same aphis should 
nourish itself with equal readiness upon the sharp acid juice of the 
sorrel, the milky and powerfully narcotic poppy, the intensely bitter 
chamomile, and the bland, insipid pigweed, thistle, manna grass, and 
other plants. It renders the suggestion of Mr. Curtis, in a quotation 
upon a preceding page, altogether improbable, that it in some cases 
is poisoned by feeding on juices not adapted to its constitution. 
It was the middle of May that I first noticed this black aphis upon 
the burning bush. My attention was attracted to a singular phenom¬ 
enon which the leaves of this shrub presented. Toward the end of 
almost every limb one or more of the leaves was curiously doubled 
backward, forming a four-sided follicle or little bag or box, each having 
a family of these black plant-lice inclosed therein. This folding of 
the leaves in this uniform and remarkable manner had been produced 
by the lice stationing themselves upon the midvein on the under side 
of the leaf, and inserting their sharp beaks into it and sucking out its 
juices, causing it to contract in such a manner as to form three folds 
or plications, extending obliquely across the leaf in the form of an 
italic capital letter W, and dividing the leaf, which is of a regular 
elliptic form, twice as long as wide, into four equal triangular parts. 
And being bent backward to a right angle at each of the three folds 
brought the edges of the leaf evenly together, making a four-sided 
box, in the form of a three-sided pyramid, with its base constituting 
the fourth side. These leaves were thus folded together in such an 
exact, such an artistic manner, as to make them quite a curiosity. If 
a piece of paper is cut into an elliptic shape and folded together into 
four equal triangular parts, it will be seen on opening it apart that 
the edges will come together with much exactness, to form a closed 
four-sided box, and will thus illustrate the operations of these 
insects. 
