Mother-Aphis and Her Army of Children on Tube
Whilst engaged some few years ago in the study of the species that affects the blossoms of one of our gourds—the Cucurbita ovifera of botanists—certain phenomena were observed, which promised an easy and speedy solution of the problem.

Gathered in compact masses, like companies of soldiery preparing for a foray, hundreds of aphides were seen, busily feeding, all over the flowers. There were old and young, not an indiscriminate mingling of ages and sizes, but an orderly arrangement of families, each family preceded by its own appropriate head. First came the very young of each family, only to be followed by those that were older, leaving the oldest of all to lead up the rear.