Wrote Letter L-260 of 1695-07-10 to Frederik Adriaan van Reede about aphids, their reproduction, and the unsuccessful search for male aphids

Date: 
July 10, 1695
Standard reference information
L-number: 
L-260
Leeuwenhoek's number: 
90
Collected Letters number: 
147
Collected Letters volume: 
10

Text of the letter in the original Dutch and in English translation from Alle de Brieven. The Collected Letters at the DBNL - De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren

Leeuwenhoek wrote this letter about …

Curling of leaves of different trees. It is not ants, but aphids that are the cause of this. Numerous young aphids in the bodies of the mother animals. Shedding of the skin of the aphids. Winged aphids are generated from wingless ones. Several species of aphids on different trees. Young aphids are born abdomen foremost. Figure of the sow thistle aphid. About larvae of parasitic origin found in the bodies of some aphids, and their development into a separate species of "little flies". The search for male aphids is abortive.