Insects injurious to fruits . e tree, and where very numerous induce gradual decay ofthe roots, and occasionally result in the death of the close examination the excrescences are found to con-tain in their crevices very minute pale-yellow lice, often ac-companied by larger winged ones. The former have theirbodies covered with a bluish-white cottony matter, havingthe appearance of mould, the filaments of which are five orsix times as long as the insects themselves, and are secretedfrom the upper part of the body, more particularly fromthe hinder portion of the back. In Fig. 1, a repre
Insects injurious to fruits . e tree, and where very numerous induce gradual decay ofthe roots, and occasionally result in the death of the close examination the excrescences are found to con-tain in their crevices very minute pale-yellow lice, often ac-companied by larger winged ones. The former have theirbodies covered with a bluish-white cottony matter, havingthe appearance of mould, the filaments of which are five orsix times as long as the insects themselves, and are secretedfrom the upper part of the body, more particularly fromthe hinder portion of the back. In Fig. 1, a represents aknotted root, b a wingless louse, and c a winged insects are both magnified; the short lines at the sidesindicate their natural size. The apple-root plant-louse is believ^ed by some entomolo-gists to be a native insect, while others hold to the opinionthat it has been imported from Europe. It is nourished bysucking the juices of the tree, piercing the tender roots with 13 14 INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE its proboscis. In the very young lice this instrument, whenat rest and folded under the abdomen, is longer than thebody, but in the more mature specimens it is only about two-thirds the length ofFig. 1. the body. While it usually confines it-self to the roots oftrees, it issometimesfound on the suck-ers that spring uparound them, andsometimes alsoabout the stump ofan amputatedbranch, but in every instance it may be recognized by thebluish-white cottony matter with which its body is this cottony covering be forcibly removed, it will be in two or three days the insect will have again producedsufficient to envelop itself completely. Occasionally the ma-ture lice crawl uj) the branches of the trees during the sum-mer, where they also form colonies, and then are known asthe Woolly Aphis of the Apple. This form of the insect willbe referred to more fully under No. 9. The appearance of this root-louse is recorded in Downings Horticulturist
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