at all times, when winters are mild; and are of great service to those soft-billed birds that never leave us. On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects, usually called gnats (I suppose Tipulæ and Empides) appear sporting and dancing over the tops of the evergreen trees in the shrubbery, and frisking about as if the business of generation was still going on. Hence it appears that these Diptera (which by their sizes appear to be of different species) are not subject to a torpid state in the winter as most winged insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, and when it rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. They often are out in a fog2. HUMMING IN THE AIR. THERE is a natural occurrence to be met with upon the highest part of our down in hot summer days, which always amuses me much, without giving me any satisfaction with respect to the cause of it; and that is a loud audible humming of bees in the air, though not one insect is to be seen. This sound is to be heard distinctly the whole common through, from the Moneydells, to Mr. White's avenue gate. Any person would suppose that a large swarm of bees was in motion, and playing about over his head3. This noise was heard last week, on June 28th. 2 This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms of little winged insects playing up and down in the air in the middle of winter, even when the ground has been covered with snow.-MARKWICK. > I have frequently observed this humming in the neighbourhood of London, in Copenhagen Fields, on Hampstead Heath, and at Shooter's Hill, and for some time was as much puzzled to explain it as White: till I, on several occasions, remarked a troop of swallows busily hawking high overhead, where the humming was heard. There could be no doubt, therefore, that it was occasioned by insects, invisible to me in consequence of their distance. In another instance, I could plainly see numbers of bees passing in their way to and from some blossomed lime trees, as I supposed, which were at a good distance from the spot where I stood-the primary cause, perhaps, of their flying high.-RENNIE. "Thick in yon stream of light a thousand ways, Upward and downward, thwarting and convolved, THOMSON'S SEASONS. CHAFERS. COCKCHAFERS seldom abound oftener than once in three or four years; when they swarm they deface the trees and hedges. Whole woods of oaks are stripped bare by them. Chafers are eaten by the turkey, the rook, and the house sparrow. The Scarabæus solstitialis first appears about June 26: they are very punctual in their coming out every year. They are a small species, about half the size of the May chafer, and are known in some parts by the name of the fern chafer". PTINUS PECTINICORNIS. THOSE maggots that make worm holes in tables, chairs, bedposts, &c., and destroy wooden furniture, especially where there is any sap, are the larvæ of the Ptinus pectinicornis. This insect, it is probable, deposits its eggs on the surface, and the worms eat their way in. In their holes they turn into their pupa state, and so come forth winged in July; eating their way through the valances or curtains of a bed, or any other furniture that happens to obstruct their passage. A singular circumstance relative to the cockchafer, or, as it is called here, the May-bug, Scarabæus Melolontha, happened this year (1800):— My gardener in digging some ground found, about six inches under the surface, two of these insects alive and perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March. When he brought them to me, they appeared to be as perfect and as much alive as in the midst of summer, crawling about as briskly as ever: yet I saw no more of this insect till the 22nd of May, when it began to make its appearance. How comes it, that though it was perfectly formed so early as the 24th of March, it did not show itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards ?---MARKWICK. They seem to be most inclined to breed in beech; hence beech will not make lasting utensils, or furniture. If their eggs are deposited on the surface, frequent rubbings will preserve wooden furniture5. BLATTA ORIENTALIS-COCKROACH. A NEIGHBOUR complained to me that her house was overrun with a kind of black beetle, or, as she expressed herself, with a kind of black bob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they get up in a morning before daybreak. Soon after this account, I observed an unusual insect in one of my dark chimney closets, and find since, that in the night they swarm also in my kitchen. On examination, I soon ascertained the species to be the Blatta Orientalis of Linnæus, and the Blatta molendinaria of Mouffet. The male is winged; the female is not, but shows somewhat like the rudiments of wings, as if in the pupa state. These insects belonged originally to the warmer parts of America, and were conveyed from thence by shipping to the East Indies; and by means of commerce begin to prevail in the more northern parts of Europe, as Russia, Sweden, &c. How long they have abounded in England I cannot say; but have never observed them in my house till lately. They love warmth, and haunt chimney closets, and the backs of ovens. Poda says that these and house crickets will not associate together; but he is mistaken in that assertion, as Linnæus suspected he was. They are altogether night insects (lucifuge), never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still, and escaping 3 The Ptilinus pectinicornis, FABR., is by no means the only insect that is destructive to furniture. Various species of Anobium also perforate it in all directions. Linnæus's chairs were bored through and destroyed by An. pertinax; and the Rev. Mr. Kirby has had his chairs, his pictureframes, and the floor of his chamber eaten in every direction by the An. striatum: the last named beetle attacks any furniture, not even abstaining altogether from mahogany.—E. T. B. H H away nimbly at the approach of a candle. Their antennæ are remarkably long, slender, and flexile. October, 1790. After the servants are gone to bed, the kitchen hearth swarms with young crickets, and young Blatte molendinaria 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 Blatte 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 the 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. CIMEX LINEARIS. 6 AUGUST 12, 1775. 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, 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. From the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these insects seem without doubt to be viviparous". RANATRA LINEARIS. • [Ranatra linearis, FABR.] 7 The egg of the long water-bug has been sufficiently known for many years. 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 immersed by the aid of the lengthened ovipositor of the insect, as to be entirely hidden from view; the bristles alone projecting from the place of concealment. The object of this curious arrangement is among the most beautiful and beneficent of the provisions of nature. While a recep |