80 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[March, 
shown at A, fig. 1. Some idea of the natural 
size may be gathered from N; it is nearly oval in 
body, about six lines long, and three broad, ex- 
= --=Sg.f5 L -' 
Fig. 1.—ROSE LOUSE (Aphis rosa .)—The perfect insect as it appears under 
the magnifying glass.— N, Natural size. 
Microscopic Views of the Insect World- I. 
BY MRS. CHARLOTTE TAYLOR. 
[Note by the Editor. —We are happy to pre¬ 
sent to the readers of the Agriculturist the first 
of a proposed series of original articles, giving a 
description of the habits and characteristics of 
various insects, with suggestions for their exter¬ 
mination, etc.; together with new illustrations 
taken directly from the insects themselves, and 
prepared expressly for this journal. 'We take the 
more pleasure in this, not only because the sub¬ 
ject is one of great interest and importance to 
every cultivator, but also because we are thus 
contributing to bring more prominently before an 
American public the original investigations of an 
accomplished and indefatigable student of Natur¬ 
al History, whose labors although they have long 
been highly valued in Europe, have not hith¬ 
erto been sufficiently known and appreciated in 
her own country. 
A glance at the illustrations given in this num¬ 
ber, will indicate something of the interest con¬ 
nected with this subject. We find our rosebush¬ 
es sickly and dying, and at first wonder what can 
be the matter with them. A close inspection re¬ 
veals the fact that the leaves are infested by a 
vast number of minute insects, scarcely larger 
than the speck shown at N, fig. 1, and hardly 
perceptible to the eye. Catch one of these in¬ 
sects, and place it under a powerful magnifier, and 
there stands forth the huge animal shown 
at A, as perfect in all its parts as an ostrich or 
elephant, and more beautiful to look upon. And 
yet this insect, small as it is, is really a monster 
in size, when compared with an infinite number 
of other insects that abound everywhere in na¬ 
ture. Not one in a million of the living animals 
that literally swarm through the vegetable king¬ 
dom, has ever been seen by the common observ¬ 
er Nor has even the microscope shown a point 
beyond which there are not 
still smaller animated be¬ 
ings. Our ideas of size 
are all relative. Said ■: 
a friend recently : “ If 
during some night, all 
things around us, includ¬ 
ing our own bodies, were 
contracted into one-half 
the present size, the 
change would not be no¬ 
ticed by us—no, nor even 
if contracted, or expand¬ 
ed, a million times.” The 
insects which appear so 
small to us are only re¬ 
latively so. The mind 
fails to conceive an ani¬ 
mal so small that there 
can not be a smaller one. 
But enough on this point 
now'. Entomology, that 
is the study of insects, 
is coming to be of vast 
importance to cultiva¬ 
tors. It is beginning to 
be discovered that by the 
ravages of these unseen 
depredators we are los¬ 
ing a lartrp nei ppnlacrp of F *g- 3 ~ c > Le S—D, Last three joints of the Antennae (or feel¬ 
ing a large peicentage Ot ers )—E, Honey Tube-F, Front View of the Proboscis. 
all our field, orchard, and 
cept when distended with eggs, B, fig. 2; it is 
then almost equal in length and breadth. It has 
six legs of three joints each, C, fig. 3. The an¬ 
tennae are seven and sometimes nine-jointed 
Three of these joints are shown very highly mag 
nified at D, fig. 3. It has two tubes at the end of 
the body from which the honey dew is ejected, E, 
fig. 3; and a long proboscis, four-jointed, with 
which it extracts its sustenance from plants. 
This is seen, bent under in fig. 1, and a front 
view is given at F, fig. 3. The body of the insect 
is of a light green color at one time, afterwards 
fading away to white or straw color, according to 
its food ; the feet and the tip of the sucker are 
very black. 
When food is scarce, that is to say, when every 
leaf has been dried of its sap, if one is placed 
under a magnifying glass it presents the appear¬ 
ance of being made entirely of glass, being quite 
transpar e n t 
through out, 
but put it on 
a green leaf, 
and you may ^ 
see the sap 
of the plant 
circ u 1 at i ng 
through every 
fibre of its 
little body. 
When in 
health, with 
plenty around 
it, it is of a 
lively green; 
the legs and 
antennaj of a 
pale pink col¬ 
or ; and with 
its brilliant, large, black eyes, it has a very 
animated and sensible appearance as it travels 
slowly from vein to vein, luxuriating upon the life 
blood of the doomed plant. 
Minute as it is, this insect is one of the won¬ 
ders of Creation, for as far as is known, it 
stands alone as exhibiting a peculiar phenomenon 
garden products. As the 
forests and wild plants de¬ 
crease, the innumerable 
hosts of insects attack the 
cultivated plants. We leave our contributor to 
show to the reader some of the wonders with 
which, by the aid of her artificial eyes—her mi¬ 
croscope—she is daily conversant :] 
the aphis Ros^® (Rose Louse.) 
This insect, I presume, is familiar to every one, 
for the annoyance it gives, if not for its odd and 
extraordinary habits. It is quite as much of a 
phenomenon now as it was more than a century 
ago—when Reaumur announced at a sitting of the 
£ 
Fig. 2.—Female Aphis, distended with eggs, or young. 
Academie des Sciences, at Paris, the wonderful dis¬ 
coveries of Bonnet. It belongs to the second 
family of Hemiplera —a family inexhaustible in 
numerical calculation, as every plant known has 
one, and many, more than two varieties of this 
family as inseparable companions. The insect, 
as it appears under a highly magnifying glass, is 
Fig. 4.—Young Aphis before the first 
moulting—G, The two Honey Tubes. 
