Insect architecture / [Anon].

  • Rennie, James, 1787-1867.
Date:
1830
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Insect architecture / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    opening that an aperture is formed spontaneously for the exit of the insects, when arrived at a perfect state. In galls of this kind we find aphides, but of a dif- ferent species from the lanigerous ones, which form the horn-shaped galls above described. Leaf-Rolling Aphides. It may not be improper to introduce here a brief sketch of some other effects, of a somewhat similar kind, produced on leaves by other species of the same family (Aphides). In all the instances of this kind which we have examined, the form which the leaf takes serves as a protection to the insects, both from the weather and from depredators. That there is design in it appears from the circumstance of the aphides crowding into the embowering vault which they have formed; and we are not quite certain whether they do not puncture certain parts of the leaf for the very purpose of making it arch over them; at least, in many cases, such as that of the hop-fly (Aphis humuli), though the insects are in countless numbers, no arching of the leaves follows. The rose-plant louse, again, (Aphis roses,) sometimes arches the leaves, but more frequently gets under the protecting folds of the half-expanded leaf-buds *. One of the most common instances of what we mean occurs on the leaves of the currant-bush, which may often be observed raised up into irregular bulgings, of a reddish-brown colour. On examining the under side of such a leaf, there will be seen a crowd of small insects, some with and some without wings, which are the Aphides ribis in their different stages, feeding securely and socially on the juices of the leaf. The most remarkable instance of this, however,