r 



IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 327 



Another association is that of males during the season of pairing. Of 

 this nature seems to be that of the cockchafer and fernchafer (JS/Idolontha 

 vulgaris and Amphimalla solstitialis), which, at certain periods of the year 

 and hours of the day, hover over the summits of the trees and hedges like 

 swarms of bees, affording, when they alight on the ground, a grateful food 

 to cats, pigs, and poultry. The males of another root-devouring beetle 

 {Hoplia argentea) assemble by myriads before noon in the meadows, 

 when in these infinite hosts you will not find even one female.^ After 

 noon the congregation is dissolved, and not a single individual is to be seen 

 in the air'-^: while those of M. vulgaris and A. solstitialis are on the wing 

 only in the evening. 



At the same time of the day some of the short-lived Ephemerae assem- 

 ble in numerous troops, and keep rising and falling alternately in the air, 

 so as to exhibit a very anmsing scene. Many of these, also, are males. 

 They continue this dance from about an hour before sun-set, till the dew 

 becomes too heavy or too cold for them. In the beginning of September, 

 for two successive years, 1 was so fortunate as to witness a spectacle of 

 this kind, which afforded me a more sublime gratification than any work 

 or exhibition of art has power to communicate. The first was in 1811. 

 Taking an evening walk near my house, when the sun, declining fast 

 towards the horizon, shone forth without a cloud, the whole atmosphere 

 over and near the stream swarmed with infinite myriads of Ephemerae and 

 little gnats of the genus Chironomus, which in the sun-beam appeared as 

 numerous and more lucid than the drops of rain, as if the heavens were 

 showering down brilliant gems. Afterwards, in the following year, one 

 Sunday, a little before sun-set, I was enjoying a stroll with a friend at a 

 greater distance from the river, when in a field by the road side the same 

 pleasing scene was renewed, but in a style of still greater magnificence ; 

 for, from some cause in the atmosphere, the insects at a distance looked 

 much larger than they really were. The choral dances consisted princi- 

 pally of Ephemera, but there were also some of Chironomi : the former, 

 however, being most conspicuous, attracted our chief attention. Alter- 

 nately rising and falling, in the full beam they appeared so transparent 

 and glorious, that they scarcely resembled any thing material : they 

 reminded us of angels and glorified spirits drinking life and joy in the 

 effulgence of the Divine favor.^ The bard of Twickenham, from the 

 terms in which his beautiful description of his sylphs is conceived in The 

 Rape of the Lock, seems to have witnessed the pleasing scene here 

 described : — 



" Some to the sun their insect wings unfold, 

 Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold; 

 Transparent forms, too fine for mortal sight, 

 Their fluid bodies half dissolv'd in light ; 

 Loose to the wind their airy garments flew, 

 Thin glittering textures of the filmy dew, 

 Dipt in the richest tincture of the skies, 

 Where light disports in ever mingling dyes, 

 While every beam new transient colors flings, 

 Colors that change whene'er they wave their wings." 



* The females {Scarabceus argenteus Marsh.) have red legs, and the males {Scarabmus 

 puherule.itus Marsh.) black. 2 Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 256. 



^ The authors of this work were the witnesses of the magnificent scene here described. 

 It was oa the second of September. The first was on the ninth of that month. 



