Feb. ax, 1916 
Green Apple Aphis 
957 
HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION 
Apparently the earliest record of the green apple aphis is the description 
by De Geer (i, p. 53), who states, in connection with this description, 
that he made rather extended observations of the species during the au¬ 
tumn of 1746. He also states that the insects were very abundant on 
the apple {Mains spp.) and often killed young trees. De Geer's obser¬ 
vations were made in Sweden. Since the original description, many 
other European records have been made, and the species is now known 
to occur in every country of Europe and at least as far east as Turkestan 
in Asia. Many writers have reported it as being very injurious, particu¬ 
larly to young trees. 
The unfortunate confusion of names makes it impossible to determine 
to which species the earlier records in this country really pertain. By 
previous writers pomi has been considered of much more recent occur¬ 
rence in this country than the other apple species, avenae . This opinion, 
however, is not well founded. Although the descriptions given by Fitch 
(5, p. 65; 6, p. 753-764; repr. p. 49-60) prove that he considered avenae 
to be the true mali , an examination of the material from the Fitch collec¬ 
tion shows that part of his insects were avenae and part of them pomi, 
even as they might be collected to-day by one not knowing the differ¬ 
ences between the species. The specimens of pomi are marked “showing 
variations," which would indicate that, although Fitch noted the differ¬ 
ences, he did not consider them of specific value. This shows pomi to have 
been located in this country nearly as early as we have any definite records. 
It was taken in Washington State in 1883 and in the District of Columbia 
in the same year. Williams collected it in St. Louis in 1894, and in all 
probability the forms referred to as mali by Co wen in 1895, in the bul¬ 
letin by Gillette and Baker (8, p. 120) were pomi , since he observed both 
winged and wingless insects on the apple on August 23. It was present 
in Illinois in 1897, and no doubt was well distributed over the country 
much earlier than we have heretofore supposed. 
In 1900 Smith (9) published a life history of this species. His first 
definite observations were made in 1897, and he first separated the 
species from the mali of American authors. In 1902 Sanderson (11, p. 
130) published life-history notes on the species under the name “ pomi 
De Geer.” 
It is known that this species occurs throughout the country wherever 
apples are grown. The accompanying map (fig. 1) merely shows definite 
localities from which we have records of the insect. It would indicate 
that the species is most abundant in the East. This, however, is not 
the case, since various observers in the West record it as occurring 
throughout their States. It appears to be particularly abundant in 
Colorado and the neighboring States. 
