PTINUS PECTINICORNIS.-Those maggots that make wormholes in tables, chairs, bed-posts, &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.

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 rubbing will preserve wooden furniture. *

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 blackbob, which swarmed in her kitchen when they got up in the 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 shews 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

My gardener, in digging some ground, found, about six incnes under the surface, two of these insects alive, and perfectly formed, so early as the twenty-fourth 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 twenty-second of May, when it began to make its appearance. How comes it, that though it was perfectly formed so early as the twentyfourth of March, it did not shew itself above ground till nearly two months afterwards?-MARKWICK.

* Naturalists have observed, that the male broods of insects invariably appear earlier than the female broods. Professor Rennie notices, that upon the leaf of a poplar tree, of three eggs of the puss moth, (cerura vinula,) which he found, two were hatched about a fortnight before the other. The first were males, and the last a female; thus distinctly proving, that eggs from which females are produced are longer of hatching. As they were found on the same leaf, they were of course presumed to be laid by the same parent; at the same time, the difference in the time of hatching could not depend upon any atmospherical cause. - ED.

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, lucifuga, never coming forth till the rooms are dark and still, and escaping 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 molendinarie 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 blatta 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 blatta have been so much kept under, the crickets have greatly increased in number.

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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

* Although the cockroach is generally to be seen only on leaving its retreat after sunset, yet they occasionally do appear through the day. Our friend, Sir Patrick Walker, who is an excellent practical naturalist, and well skilled in entomology, informed us, that the captain of a vessel from the Mauritius told him, that during their passage from thence to Leith, cockroaches used simultaneously to come on deck, from the hold, which was infested with them, and take to their wings in myriads, fly several times round the vessel like a dense cloud, alight on the deck, and instantly retreat below. - ED.

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 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.- August 12, 1775.- Cimices lineares are now in high copulation 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, as fast as their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of the lake, perhaps to deposit their fœtus in quiet: hence the sexes are found separate, except where generation is going on. From the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these insects seem, without doubt, to be viviparous.

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 phalana, 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 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 near 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 as 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. *

EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA, (MAY FLY.)-June 10, 1771.Myriads of May flies appeared, 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 emerging from the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, up and down for many yards almost in a perpendicular line. †

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 exuvia, or remains, of the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the moths had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves.-MARKWICK.

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 day when I observed them.-MARKWICK.

bloom of the honeysuckle; it scarcely settles upon the plants, but feeds on the wing, in the manner of humming birds. *

WILD BEE.-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 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 often been 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

* 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.