The Collaborative International Dictionary
Aphides \Aph"i*des\, n. pl. (Zo["o]l.) See Aphis.
Aphis \A"phis\, n.; pl. Aphides. [NL.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of insects belonging to the order Hemiptera and family Aphid[ae], including numerous species known as plant lice and green flies.
Note: Besides the true males and females, there is a race of wingless asexual individuals which have the power of producing living young in rapid succession, and these in turn may produce others of the same kind for several generations, before sexual individuals appear. They suck the sap of plants by means of a tubular proboscis, and owing to the wonderful rapidity of their reproduction become very destructive to vegetation. Many of the Aphid[ae] excrete honeydew from two tubes near the end of the body.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of aphis English)
WordNet
See aphis
Usage examples of "aphides".
During the present year, however, in the month of July, I came across a community with an unusually large stock of slaves, and I observed a few slaves mingled with their masters leaving the nest, and marching along the same road to a tall Scotch-fir-tree, twenty-five yards distant, which they ascended together, probably in search of aphides or cocci.
Chapter VII Instinct Instincts comparable with habits, but different in their origin -- Instincts graduated -- Aphides and ants -- Instincts variable -- Domestic instincts, their origin -- Natural instincts of the cuckoo, ostrich, and parasitic bees -- Slave-making ants -- Hive-bee, its cell-making instinct - - Difficulties on the theory of the Natural Selection of instincts -- Neuter or sterile insects -- Summary.
One of the strongest instances of an animal apparently performing an action for the sole good of another, with which I am acquainted, is that of aphides voluntarily yielding their sweet excretion to ants: that they do so voluntarily, the following facts show.
I removed all the ants from a group of about a dozen aphides on a dock-plant, and prevented their attendance during several hours.
After this interval, I felt sure that the aphides would want to excrete.
Even the quite young aphides behaved in this manner, showing that the action was instinctive, and not the result of experience.
But as the excretion is extremely viscid, it is probably a convenience to the aphides to have it removed.
In Switzerland the slaves and masters work together, making and bringing materials for the nest: both, but chiefly the slaves, tend, and milk as it may be called, their aphides.
But as the execretion is extremely viscid, it is probably a convenience to the aphides to have it removed.
Thousands on thousands of aphides (you might know them as blackfly or greenfly) sucked the sap from leaves and plant stems, excreting honeydew for ants and others to feed on.
Lady-birds (and their larvae) destroy myriads of the aphides which cause rust, and a flight of lady-birds should be welcomed as much as a flight of locusts is execrated in other countries.
After viewing crops in the field, after inspectÂing grains, fruits and tubers in storage, after examining botanical specimens under an almost undamaged pre-Thing microscope, I feel certain that there is only one explanation for the number and variety of plant diseases now rampant in the area -- namely, deliberate infection of the crops by means of fungus bombs, bacteria-bearing aerosols and the release of many species of virus-carrying aphides and other insects.