25 
[ 285 ] 
The parts of the mouth are undeveloped, so that it takes no food, 
his sole office being the propagation of the species. 
The female, on the other hand, with which alone we are ac¬ 
quainted, and which has been, upon the whole, probably the worst 
enemy that the orchardist, in the Northern States, has had to 
eontend with, is a wingless, footless, eyeless, grub-like creature, 
which never moves from the spot where she first fixes herself, 
ind effectually excludes herself from the light of day, by inclosing 
ferself in an impervious cell, as it were, in a living sepulchre. 
Amd yet, though destitute both of the organs of vision and loco- 
notion, these insects have passed from one continent to another, 
spread over vast States and Territories, crippled or destroyed 
thousands of orchards, and impoverished their owners, in spite of 
ill the efforts and appliances which human ingenuity could de¬ 
nse. And the difficulty is increased when we consider that, with 
he exception of the first three or four days of their lives, they 
ire immovably fixed to the bark of the tree. Can the mysterv 
>e solved ? 
In the first place, it is evident that this insect, if indeed it be 
dentical with the European species, must have been brought 
cross the ocean, attached to the bark of nursery trees. But it is 
ar from being so easy to explain how it has been carried from 
>ne tree, and from one orchard to another, often at great distances 
part. 
e been su^^ested upon this subject; first, 
hat the insects transport themselves during the short active pe- 
iod of their lives, by crawling from one tree to another. It 
eems to me that a very little observation must convince us that 
his theory is wholly untenable. If we compare the roughness of 
j 1 P ie fe of plowed ground, or the inequalities of sod land, with its 
•rowing grass and its complicated matting of last year’s growth, 
fith the microscopic minuteness of these insects, during the short 
ctive period of their existence, it will be obvious that they never 
ould migrate more than two or three feet, at most, from the tree 
n which they grew, by any locomotive powers of their own. 
Another theory is that they are carried from one place to an¬ 
ther by adhering to the feet of birds, and possibly also to the feet 
nd legs of larger insects. This was Mr. Walsh’s theory, and it 
eems to be the only way in which we can account for their being 
arried to any considerable distance, such for instance as a mile 
Vol. II—36 
