A FRIEND OF THE CARNATION AND OTHER PLANTS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 21, 23 November 1910, Page 43

A FRIEND OF THE CARNATION AND OTHER PLANTS.

Where is the observant earnation grower that has not noticed when Aphides are in evidence, a small, brownish egg-shaped object attached to the foliage, in size about as large as the head of a pin. and which cannot be dislodged with the syringe, or even removed with the brush, when cleaning the leaves of Aphides? How many know that the little egg-looking thing is but the remains of a dead Aphis, which has provided food and home for a foe in the eamp? An interesting study, which can be observed, not with the naked eye, but with an ordinary magnifying glass. The foe is a minute ichneumon fly, hardly discernible unless specially looked for. but which must be recorded as a friend of the gardener, not that in its natural numbers it can keep the rapidly multiplying aphides in check, but that it reduces their numbers is certain even if only to a small extent. Perhaps then, it will be considered wise to allow the little brown eggs to remain on the leaf How does the little fly attack the aphis? They introduce their eggs into the bodies of their victims by piercing them with their ovipositor, ami it will be seen, therefore, that minute size is no pro-

tection. When the larve emerges from the egg it feeds on the body of the aphis, and eventually, as a perfect ichneumon, makes its escape through a puncture made in the but remaining skin of the erstwhile aphis. If a few leaves on which the brown eggs are attached are put in a small glass covered “tie” box, the fly will soon come out of the dead body, and can be studied. No gardener should be without a magnifying glass.—A.SjE.P. 7/6/10.—“Journal ‘ o'! Horticulture.”