If, however, one of these upper wings, or elytra, if they may be so called, be detached from the insect, and viewed through a moderately powerful microscope — an ordinary half-inch objectglass being employed — the simple, uninteresting object starts into sudden beauty. The groundwork of the wing is seen to be composed of a membranous network, much like that of the wings of the dragon-fly, and upon it are innumerable round ■ eye-like spots, arranged in irregular transverse rows. These spots are of uniform size, and consist of a dark centre surrounded by a white transparent line, each spot being separated

from its neighbour by a space about equalling its own diameter. These spots are, in fact, the little tubercles whose existence is described as being detected by the pocket-lens.

Many species of Frog-hopper inhabit England, but the two which have been selected will serve as excellent examples. > i

The next group of this remarkable order is that which is named Dimera, or two-jointed, because the tarsus has only two joints. The antennte are always slender and longer than the head, and the winged individuals possess four wings, both pairs !i l] being of much the same texture. We will pass at once to the important family of Aphidse, or Plant-lice, sometimes kno^sm under the popular name of Green Blight.

One of the commonest of these most remarkable insects, the Lime-Kligiit (^Aphis tilice), is shown on Woodcut LXII. Figs. 3 and 4, the upper figure representing the female, and the lower the male.

The colour of the male is dull yellow, with a double row of black dots down the back. In the wings the stigma, or spot, is ol It yellow, and all the nervures are yellowish-brown at the tips. The female is simply yellow. Fig. b represents its rostrum, or beak, and Fig. c the front of the head, all these figures being much magnified. The insect can be taken with the sweep-net in long grass, which the male loves to frequent, while the female is found on the lime-tree.

Insignificant as may be a single Aphis, these insects are most formidable from their numbers, as all gardeners know to their cost. Boses are often so thickly covered with these pestilential insects that the leaves and buds are completely hidden, the latter never being permitted to develope themselves into flowers. there is scarcely a plant that has not its Aphis, and Indeed, beings not only haunt the leaves and the these extraordinary plants, but the roots and the fruit. Mr. hiewmau twigs of in his ‘Letters of Eusticus ’ : ‘Plant-lice are everyremarks where. I have to-day (August 15, 1835) cut open codlin after pips garrisoned with them ; not one lone codlin, and found the of all sizes. When I let in the day- Aphis, but a whole troop a considerable sprawling and waving of legs, light there was

no small alarm in the hive, but by degrees they got used to aitd fresh air, and were quite still. I tried to tickle them lio-bt and

•with a straw in order again to watch their movements, when, lo and behold, they were all dead — gathered to their fathers — gone to the tomb of all the Capulets ! Some had heaved anchor, and dropped from the pip ; others, fixed more firmly, had died at their posts, and, tucking their legs together under them, hung by their beaks.

‘ In no apple was there any road in or out. There was no chance of their passing to the exterior air, or of their having come from it ; indeed, their speedy death showed that change of air did not agree with them. I was particularly careful in my search for a via, but there was none. I have often seen the same thing in a bloated poplar-leaf ; but here is a possibility of the egg being laid between the cuticles of the leaf ; thus, the sap-suction commencing, the bloat may be caused, but this is impossible in a huge apple with an inch and a half of pulp in every direction. I am unable to explain the mystery ; and, like many other ■wiseacres, content myself with ■vv^ondering how, in the name of fortune, the Aphides got there.’

These insects are prolific almost beyond belief. As a general rule, insects lay eggs which are hatched, pass through the state of larva and pupa, and then become perfect insects. But the Plant-lice go on a very different plan. Sometimes, as if to show that they are amenable to law, they do lay eggs ; but this is the exception and not the rule, which is somewhat as follows, though varied every now and then by these most eccentric of insects.

A female Aphis takes her place on a branch — say of the rose — plunges her beak into the tender bark and begins to suck the sap. After a short time she begins to produce young Aphides, at an average rate of fourteen per diem. These young creatures are just like their mother, only less, and immediately follow her example by first sucking the sap of the plant and then producing fresh young. As to the opposite sex, it is no business of theirs, and I hcive often wondered that the Shakers have not adduced the Aphides in support of their peculiar tenets. The extent to which this peculiar mode of increase can be carried may be imagined from the fact that a single female Aphis, isolated from the other sex, began to produce prolific females, which in their turn produced others, and so on for four years ; during the whole of

which time not a male Aphis liad been suffered even to approach them.

It is in consequence of this remarkable mode of production that the twigs and buds become so rapidly covered with Aphides, the quickly-succeeding generations crawling over the hacks of their predecessors, so as to arrive at an unoccupied spot of bark in which they can drive their beaks. Thus, at the beginning of a week, say on Monday, a rose-tree may be apparently free from Aphides, or have at the most six or seven of the ‘ blight ’ upon it. But, by Thursday, the whole plant will he so thickly covered with Aphides that scarcely a particle of the hark can he seen, the whole being crowded with the green bodies of the insect, each with its beak dug deeply into the plant, and draining it of its juices. It is difficult to prescribe any mode of getting rid of these garden pests. The double-brush answers as well as anything I know that can be applied by the hand of man ; but there is nothing so effective as the natural foes of the Aphides, namely the Lady-birds, whose mode of feeding has already been described, and the Syrphi or Hg„wk-flies.

If the reader will refer to the illustration on Woodcut LXII., he will see that from the back of the Aphis and towards the tail there are two slender projections. These are tubes, from which exudes a sweet liquid ; which, with the aid of the microscope, can be seen starting in minute drops from the end of each tube. When the Aphides are in great profusion upon a tree, this liquid falls from them, and covers the leaves with the sweet, sticky substance which is so familiar to us under the name of ‘ honey-dew.’ Trees thus distinguished are •always overrun by swarms of ants, which lick the sweet drop- •pings from the leaves and hold high revels on this substance, ■whose origin was once so mysterious. 3 . The ants even go farther than this. Not content witli .taking the honey-dew that has fallen from the Aphides, they janticipate its fall, and eagerly lap up the sweet secretion as it •exudes, from the insects. In fact, they make much the same ••use of Aphides as we do of cows, and even carry off the antcows, as they may be called, to their own nests, and there keep .them. That the ants do this has long been known, but the of keeping milch-cows seemed so far beyond the capaci- .notion ■jties of an insect that many persons refused to give credence

to so romantic a story. It is, however, perfectly true, as may be seen by the following extract from the ‘ Letters of Rusticus ’ : —

‘ Another odd station for Aphides is on the roots of plants. I have found them by hundreds on a thistle-root, closely packed together, and almost as white as snow. The other day I pulled up a large thistle that grew on an ant-hill, and thus I brought to light a whole colony of these white Aphides. I had long known of the great value which ants set on these little beasts ; so I shook down some dozen of them from the thistle-root, among the ants, which were all a-swarm at the damage I had done to their dwelling.

‘ No sooner were the ants aware of the presence of the Aphides, than they began to fondle them with their legs, sometimes positively taking them round the neck, to tap them ou the back with their antennse, and to lick them with their tongues ; they then took hold of them with their jaws and lifted them from the ground, and carried them with the greatest care, one by one, into the recesses of the nest. I walked by the same way about three hours afterwards, and found the nest all quiet and orderly, and not an Aphis was to be seen. So I went to work with my knife and scraped down the side of the hill. I soon came to the Aphides. They were clustered together on little bits of thistle-root, which had been broken off in the ground, and were attended by numbers of ants. When the ants found their cattle were again in jeopardy, they drew them gently from the root and carried them still farther into tlie nest.

‘ I am quite convinced that honey-dew is a secretion from the Aphides, and that ants devour this honey-dew, and a sweet, clear, liquid honey it is. I have often watched an ant go from one Aphis to another, stand behind each, and gently squeeze the body with its fore-legs ; perhaps one Aphis in ten, not more, will give out a small drop of honey as clear as crystal, which the ants instantly swallow. The ants take much more care of the Aphides than the Aphides do of themselves ; they are sad, didl, stupid creatures. It is very pretty to see the licking and washing and cleaning and caressing which the ants constantly bestow on them. When the Aphides cast N N

their skin, the ants instantly carry it away, nor will they let any dirt or rubbish remain among them or on them.

‘ But the most amusing care of the ant is guarding the Aphides from the attacks of that little parasitic lly, whose operations Mr. Haliday has so well described. You must have seen a sheep-dog run over the backs of a whole flock of sheep, when closely crowded together, in order to bring back some sinner that has gone astray ; so will the ants, in the hot sunshine, run about over an establishment of Aphides, driving away the rascally parasite that is for ever hovering over to destroy them.’

The reader will doubtless have noticed that some Aphides have wings and that others have none. In fact, by far the greater number of these insects are without wings, like the central figure on Woodcut LXII. In the early part of the year they are all without wings, those organs being added about the end of summer.

The effect which these insects have upon vegetation is extraordinary. As to the hop-plant, it is in a great measure dependent for its success upon the presence or absence of the in hop-growing districts is called The Flt, no Aphis, which insect being deserving of such a name. All other winged }iop-growers watch their crops with the utmost assiduity, and the presence of the Aphis, though only upon a few plants, causes consternation in the hearts of the growers. Owing to fecundity of the insect, and the rapid manner the astonishing plants which were perfectly free from the Aphis become in which covered with its green armies, an idea is prevalent absolutely are brought by certain winds ; and no sooner that the insects north or north-western wind blow for does a chill, depressing, of time, than all the gardeners’ heads are shakany length and all their tongues are muttering fears of

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