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NOTICES OF INSECTS HURTFUL IN GARDENS. 
Greenhouse plants are subject to the visits of aphides, and, as this 
place cannot be fumigated without destroying its sweetness, the in¬ 
fected plants should be removed to a close frame, and fumigated 
there. 
Ants are always found in company with the aphides; indeed, the 
appearance of the former gives the first intimation of the presence of 
the latter. The object of the ants is to collect the honey-dew, and 
they may be observed to push about the unwieldy bodies of their pur¬ 
veyors very roughly, in order to get at their excrements, or to compel 
them to void it. Whether the ants prey on the bodies, is questionable; 
for, though they may be often seen hurrying homeward with a young 
aphis in their jaws, it is said by naturalists that this capture is not for 
the purpose of killing and eating them, but for the purpose of placing 
them on some plant more contiguous to the ant-hill, to save labour. If 
this curious circumstance in the history of the ant be true, (and we 
cannot say it is not,) these little republicans may be proposed as 
examples of sagacity, as well as of industry, to man. 
Ants are not very annoying to the gardener; it is true, they like a 
bit of ripe melon, peach, or pear; but this should be allowed for the 
great good they do in cleaning the trees of honey-dew, and for destroy¬ 
ing a good many of the green larvse of the Tortrix. They are, however, 
culpable in another affair which may just be mentioned .-—there are 
very few hothouses but contain a colony or two of ants; and when fire 
is put thereto in spring, it awakens the ants from their winter doze ; 
forth they come in quest of food, and, if they can find nothing else 
in the peach-house, they fall upon the anthers of the opening flowers, 
and make a prize of them for their young, or to place in the public 
granary at home. We have seen this depredation repeatedly, but 
believe it happens more from necessity than choice, as they never 
touch an anther if they can find their friends, the aphides in the 
house. 
Some of the aphides are so nearly allied to several species of coccus, 
that they often receive each other’s names. We cannot at present say 
exactly what the generic distinctions are, or whether they have been 
already defined. On this point we would beg the assistance of some 
one of our entomological readers, had they leisure so far to oblige us. 
It is a shame that, at this time of day, we hear one acute naturalist 
call the American blight the Aphis lanigera, and the next we meet, 
equally well versed in insects, declares it to be the mealy coccus. 
(7o be continued .) 
