172 
Callipterus mucidus. Fitch. The Mouldy Aphis. 
A solitary plant louse, walking on the leaves or hovering on the 
wing in their shade, having its body, legs and antennae coated over f 
more or less, with pruinose matter resembling line bluish-white 
mould. Pale green whitish anteriorly, legs and antennae black, their I 
bases pale; wings clear and glassey with a small dusky or black 
cloud on the tips of the veins; the rib-vein whitish to the stigma, 
and from thence thicker and coal black. Length 0.075. 
INSECT ENEMIES AND PARASITES. 
There is parhaps no other group of insects in the entire class that 
has as many natural and inveterate foes, as that which includes the 
true Plant-lice. These species appear to be designed by nature to ex¬ 
tract the sap of plants and tit it for the nourishment of other insects. 
Living entirely upon the sap of the leaf, twig or stem on which they are 
deposited, and having little occasion for exercise or movements, and led 
by instinct to avoid as for as possible the direct rays of the sun, their 
external envelope or dermal covering, in fact ail parts of the body, remain 
soft and tender, and their rapid imbibation not only constantly keeps them 
tilled with fluids, but is so great in proportion to their capacity that na¬ 
ture has provided them with nectaries or honey-tubes as escape valves for 
the overplus. They are therefore most dainty food for the rapacious insect 
appetite, and their enemies are numbered by scores; in fact nature seems 
to have prepared entire families of insects as a special means of keeping 
them in check, and without which vegetation would soon, in a great mea¬ 
sure, succumb beneath their attacks. 
These enemies are found in the Orders Coleoptera (beetles), JSFeurop- 
tera (lace-wing flies, etc.), Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and wasp-like | 
insects), and JJiptera (flies and gnats). 
Their beetle foes ( Coleoptera ) are confined chiefly to the GoccAnel- 
lidm , or lady-bird family. These beautiful little beetles, so well known \ 
to everyone by their hemispherical shape, and bright red or yellow | 
color with black dots, or black color, with red or yellow dots, are J 
most inveterate Aphis eaters, both in their larval and perfect states. 
Their, eggs, which are smooth, oval and usually a bright yellow color, 
may frequently be met with on the under surface of leaves, in clusters 
of from two to three dozen, placed close together, and gummed by 
one end to the leaf. 
