Abstract
IT is often difficult to imagine, and still more so to discover, the particular foes against which the hairs of young plants are a defence. In the course of the last two days I have noticed two instances in which the same foes have been successfully vanquished by a similar device On two widely different plants. The first instance was afforded by plants of Salvia patens, which had been removed from a cool frame to the shelter of a wall prior to being planted out in the borders; the second by the young leaves and shoots of several species of Rhododendron growing in my garden. The hairs of both these plants were abundantly laden with dead and dying hymenopterous gall-flies of several different species (? of the genus Andricus). I examined several individuals, and found them invariably to be females. They were caught by the legs, wings, or indeed almost any portion of the body. I failed to discover any insects other than the gallflies captured by these hairs; and yet there were a few dipterous flies walking unconcernedly over the leaves, and in no way inconvenienced by the sticky hairs. The evidence would seem to point to these hairs being a special protection against gall-causing insects at a stage when the tender leaves and shoots would otherwise be very vulnerable by these tiny creatures.
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LATTER, O. The Protective Value of the Sticky Hairs on Young Leaves and Shoots. Nature 86, 484 (1911). https://doi.org/10.1038/086484a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/086484a0
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