Pl. aphides. [mod.L. (Linnæus); of unknown etymology. A number of conjectures are offered in Buckton’s Monograph of Brit. Aphides, the least improbable being that the plural is for Gr. ἀφειδεῖς pl. of ἀφειδής ‘unsparing, lavishly bestowed’ (? in reference to their prodigious rate of production, or to their voracity), and the sing. formed on it in imitation of orchis, orchides, chrysalis, caryatis, etc. The quantity of the i with Linnæus is unknown; it is now made short.]
1. A family of minute insects, also called plant-lice, which are very destructive to vegetation. They are prodigiously prolific, multiplying through the summer by parthenogenesis; they form the food of lady-birds, and are tended by ants for the honeydew which they yield, whence sometimes called ant-cows.
1771. Richardson, in Phil. Trans., LXI. 183. The Aphides are distinguished by Linnæus into more than thirty species.
1776. Withering, Bot. Arrangem. (1796), II. 277. The honey dew is the excrement of a species of Aphis.
1793. White, Selborne (1853), 380. The people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of aphides.
1859. Darwin, Orig. Spec., viii. (1878), 207. An ant … began to play with its antennæ, on the abdomen first of one aphis and then of another.
1876. Buckton, Brit. Aphides (Ray Soc.), I. 80. [Except for accidents, a single aphis in one year might produce more aphides than is represented by the weight of the population of China.]
2. Comb. and Attrib., as aphis-blight, aphis-lion, aphis-sugar (see quot.).
1882. Birm. Daily Post, 26 Dec., 7/3. Aphis blight is the consequence of an unhealthy state of the hop plant brought about by climatic conditions, as cold winds, white frosts, [etc.] … which … weaken them and render them unable to grow away from the aphides.
1870. Nicholson, Zool. (1880), 351. Fig. 185. Neuroptera: The Aphis-lion (Chrysopa perla), imago, larva, and eggs.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXIII. 225. Honey-dew, or aphis-sugar, and the honey of the bee are intermediate between animal and vegetable sugars.
