508 
Annual Report of New York 
spring they would revive and complete the work which they had been 
prevented from accomplishing in the autumn. I am thus led to think 
that this insect is carried through the winter both in its perfect state 
and in its egg state. 
Since the preceding paragraphs were written I have been so for¬ 
tunate as to discover the winter quarters of this insect, whereby the 
place and manner in which it is carried through this period of the 
year is no longer a mystery. And the opinion which I have above 
expressed, that many of the mature insects live through the winter, 
receives full continuation. 
Upon a mild day in December, on examining with a magnifying 
glass the bark and twigs of the burning bush which had been infested 
with this aphis during the preceding summer, I meet with its eggs in 
abundance. The new buds of this bush are at this time from an 
eighth to nearly a quarter of an inch long and are growing appressed 
to the bark. And it is in the crevice along each side of these buds, 
between them and the bark, that the female aphis places her eggs. 
Sometimes but one or two, at other times several eggs occur along 
one or both sides of a bud. They are so minute that, notwithstand¬ 
ing their sparkling black color, the eye is scarcely able to perceive 
them, except in places where several are clustered together. They 
lie loosely in the crevice, not fastened by any gummy substance. The 
buds have perhaps swollen somewhat since they were placed here, 
whereby they are more firmly held in their places. Their shells, or 
rather the soft membrane by which they are covered, is very weak 
and tender, so that to raise one of them out of the crevice with the 
point of a needle, requires to be done carefully, else it will be ruptured, 
a dirty watery fluid coming therefrom. 
A discovery still more interesting was made in this examination. 
Here and there crowded under these buds a wingless aphis nearly full 
grown, was found, lying motionless and torpid with the cold. One 
of these occurred openly exposed upon the smooth bark. Apparently 
when it was wandering about in search of a suitable crevice into 
which to crowd and secrete itself, it had been overtaken by the 
increasing cold and became so chilled it was unable to move itself 
any farther, and instinctively fastened the hooks of its feet into the 
surface of the bark to hold itself securely thereto, as it sank to sleep. 
In that exposed situation the winter’s storms of driving snow and 
sleet would probably have dislodged it, and it would have fallen to 
the ground and perished. But most of these aphides would undoubt 
edly remain secure and safe in their hiding places, through the winter, 
