Blatto molendinarice of all sizes, from the most minute growth to their full proportions. They seem to live in a friendly manner together, and not to prey the one on the other.

August, 1792. After the destruction of many thousands of Blattæ molendinaria, we find that at intervals a fresh detachment of old ones arrives; and particularly during this hot season for the windows being left open in the evenings, the males come flying in at the casements from the neighbouring houses, which swarm with them. How the females, that seem to have no perfect wings that they can use, can contrive to get from house to house, does not so readily appear. These, like many insects, when they find their present abodes overstocked, have powers of migrating to fresh quarters. Since the Blatte have been so much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in number.

GRYLLUS DOMESTICUS-HOUSE CRICKET.

NOVEMBER. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen hearth swarms with minute crickets not so large as fleas, which must have been lately hatched. So that these domestic insects, cherished by the influence of a constant large fire, regard not the season of their year, but produce their young at a time when their congeners are either dead, or laid up for the winter, to pass away the uncomfortable months in the profoundest slumbers, and a state of torpidity. When house crickets are out, and running about in a room in the night, if surprised by a candle, they give two or three shrill notes, as it were for a signal to their fellows, that they may escape to their crannies and lurking holes, to avoid danger.

AUGUST 12, 1775.

CIMEX LINEARIS.

Cimices lineares' are now eagerly pairing on ponds and pools. The females, who vastly exceed the males in bulk, dart and shoot along on the surface of the water with the males on their backs. When a female chooses to be disengaged, she rears, and jumps, and plunges,

1 Runatra lincaris, FABR.

like an unruly colt; the lover thus dismounted, soon finds a new mate. The females afterwards retire to another part of the lake, perhaps to deposit their fœtus in quiet; hence the sexes are found separate, except in the pairing season.

RANATRA LINEARIS.

From the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these insects seem without doubt to be viviparous.1

PHALENA QUERCUS.

Most of our oaks are naked of leaves, and even the Holt in general, having been ravaged by the caterpillars of a small Phalaena which is of a pale yellow colour. These insects, though a feeble race, yet, from their infinite numbers, are of wonderful effect, being able to destroy the foliage of

1 The egg of the long water-bug has been long known to entomologists. It is armed at one end by two bristles, and is inserted into the stem of an aquatic plant, generally of a club rush, in which it is so deeply imbedded by the lengthened ovipositor of the insect, as to be entirely hidden from view; the bristles alone projecting from the place of concealment. These bristles by preventing the edges of the plant stem from uniting, secure an exit for the larva as soon as it is hatched. -ED.

whole forests and districts. At this season they leave their aurelia, and issue forth in their fly state, swarming and covering the trees and hedges.

In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in catching their prey near the ground; and found they were hawking after these Phalana. The aurelia of this moth is shining and black as jet; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which is rolled round it, and secured at the ends by a web, to prevent the maggot from falling out.1

EPHEMERA CAUDA TRIESTA-MAY FLY.

JUNE 10, 1771. Myriads of May flies appear for the first time on the Alresford stream. The air was crowded with them, and the surface of the water covered. Large trouts sucked them in as they lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to rise till their wings were dried.

This appearance reconciled me in some measure to the wonderful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerg ing from the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, up and down for many yards almost in a perpendicular line."

SPHINX OCELLATA.

A VAST insect appears after it is dusk, flying with a humming noise, and inserting its tongue into the bloom of the honey

1 I suspect that the insect here meant is not the Phalana quercus, but the Phalana viridata, concerning which, I find the following note in my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the year 1785:

About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed the leaves of almost all the oak trees in Denn Copse to be eaten and destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw an infinite number of small beautiful pale green moths flying about the trees; the leaves of which that were not quite destroyed were curled up, and withinside were the exuviæ or remains of the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the moths had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves.-MARKWICK.

2 I once saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down over the surface of a pond in Denn Park, exactly in the manner described by this accurate naturalist. It was late in the evening of a warm summer's day when I observed them.-MARKWICK.

suckle; it scarcely settles upon the plants, but feeds on the wing in the manner of humming birds.'

THERE is a sort of wild bee frequenting the garden-campion for the sake of its tomentum, which probably it turns to some purpose in the business of nidification. It is very pleasant to see with what address it strips off the pubes, running from the top to the bottom of a branch, and shaving it bare with all the dexterity of a hoop shaver. When it has got a vast bundle almost as large as itself, it flies away, holding it secure between its chin and its fore legs.

There is a remarkable hill on the downs near Lewes in Sussex, known by the name of Mount Carburn, which overlooks that town, and affords a most engaging prospect of all the country round, besides several views of the sea. On the very summit of this exalted promontory, and amidst the trenches of its Danish camp, there haunts a species of wild bee, making its nest in the chalky soil. When people

1 I have frequently seen the large bee moth (Sphinx stellatarum) inserting its long tongue or proboscis into the centre of flowers, and feeding on their nectar, without settling on them, but keeping constantly on the wing.-MARKWICK.

2 This was probably Bombus lapidarius.-ED.

approach the place, these insects begin to be alarmed, and with a sharp and hostile sound, dash and strike round the heads and faces of intruders. I have been often interrupted myself while contemplating the grandeur of the scenery around me, and have thought myself in danger of being stung.

WASPS.

WASPS abound in woody wild districts far from neighbourhoods; they feed on flowers, and catch flies and caterpillars to carry to their young. Wasps make their nests with the raspings of sound timber; hornets, with what they gnaw from decayed these particles of wood are kneaded up with a mixture of saliva from their bodies and moulded into combs. When there is no fruit in the gardens, wasps eat flies, and suck the honey from flowers, from ivy blossoms, and umbellated plants: they carry off also flesh from butchers' shambles.1

CESTRUS CURVICAUDA.

THIS insect lays its nits or eggs on horses' legs, flanks, &c., each on a single hair. The maggots when hatched do not enter the horses' skins, but fall to the ground. It seems to abound most in moist moorish places, though sometimes seen in the uplands.2

NOSE FLY.

ABOUT the beginning of July, a species of fly (Musca) obtains, which proves very tormenting to horses, trying still to enter their nostrils and ears, and actually laying their eggs in the latter of those organs, or perhaps in both. When these abound, horses in woodland districts become

1 In the year 1775 wasps abounded so prodigiously in this neighbourhood, that, in the month of August, no less than seven or eight nests were ploughed up in one field: of which there were several instances, as I was informed.

In the spring, about the beginning of April, a single wasp is sometimes seen, which is of a larger size than usual; this I imagine is the queen or female wasp, the mother of the future swarm.-MARKWICK. 2 See Letter XXXIV. to Pennant, page 107, note 2.-ED.