For this chapter any common species of plant-louse may be used. If the study is made in the spring the louse on rose, apple, clover, wheat or any other crop may be used. If the study is made in the fall the species on turnips, corn or other plant or crop may be selected. The different species vary greatly but for these studies any available species will be satisfactory.
Black winter eggs of Aphis showing how they are deposited in masses on twigs of apple. (After U. S. Dept. Agri.)
The plant-louse or aphis is a sap-sucking insect which feeds and multiplies rapidly often seriously injuring crops. The loss of sap together with the poisoning effect of the bite causes the weakening of the plant or leaf with its ultimate death if feeding continues. The greatest damage is usually done during cold springs or during a cool rainy period. This prevents the enemies of the louse from increasing and attacking it while the weather may not be too severe to prevent the louse from working. Under favorable climatic conditions the natural enemies of the louse as a rule are able to hold it in check. The principal enemies of the louse are certain small insect feeding birds, lady-beetles, syrphid-flies, lace-wings and tiny wasp parasites. The beneficial work of the lady-beetles is discussed in an earlier chapter. The birds and lady-beetles devour them bodily, the larvÆ of the lace-wings and syrphid-flies extract their blood while the wasps live as internal parasites.
In the latitude of Missouri the plant-lice as a rule live thru the winter in the form of a fertile egg attached to the twigs of trees and shrubs. The winter egg is produced by a true female plant-louse. As a rule there is only one generation of true males and females produced each year. This brood develops late in the fall to produce the fertilized winter eggs. In the spring these eggs hatch and the tiny nymphs begin to extract sap. On maturing they begin to give birth to young lice. Throughout the summer this method of reproduction continues. These summer forms are known as the stem mothers or agamic females. These are not true females for they produce living young in place of eggs and during the summer no male lice are produced at all. This is nature's way of increasing the race of plant-lice rapidly. Late in the fall again a brood of true males and females is produced. During the summer the plant-lice increase more rapidly than any other type of insect.
Plant-lice vary in size, color and general appearance. Many are green while some are red or black or covered with a cottony secretion.
Observations and Field Studies
Plant some melon, radish or other seeds in fertile soil in pots for use in this study. When lice appear on crops in the garden or field, collect a leaf with a few on it and carefully transfer them to the leaves on your potted plants. Watch the lice feed and increase from day to day. A reading lens or a magnifying glass will be helpful as plant-lice are very small. How do they move about? Can you count their legs? How many have they? Can you see their eyes and feelers? When feeding observe how the beak is pressed against the leaf. Disturb one while it is feeding and see it attempt to loosen its mouth parts.
Common apple aphis showing a winged and wingless agamic summer forms at a and c, one with wing pads formed at b, and a recently born young at d. (After U. S. Dept. Agri.)
In the garden examine and see if you can find lady-beetles or other parasites attacking the lice. Collect some of the enemies of the lice for your collection. Make a gallon of tobacco tea by soaking one pound of tobacco stems or waste tobacco in one gallon of water for a day or use one ounce of forty per cent nicotine sulphate in three gallons of soap suds and spray or sprinkle infested bushes or vegetables with it. In an hour examine and see what effect it has had on the plant-lice. Nicotine is the most effective chemical for killing plant-lice. Do any of the lice develop wings? If so, how many? Wings develop on some of the lice at times when a plant or crop becomes too heavily infested by them. This enables some of the lice to spread to new food plants before old plants are completely destroyed and the colony of lice starved.
Wooly apple aphis, showing how they cluster in masses on limbs and secrete the white, wooly protection over their bodies.
Make a careful enlarged drawing of a winged plant-louse and a wingless one showing legs, feelers, beak, honey dew tubes on back and body segmentation. If ants are seen to attend the lice observe them carefully and describe their work. The ants feed on a sweet honey dew excretion discharged by the lice.
