MIGRATION AND DISPERSAL OF INSECTS I COLEOPTERA. 283 



bank ; it was as if a chimney-sweep had shaken his sootbag over it 

 and blackened every blade, which were here and there also spotted 

 with red. Closer examination showed me that this appearance was 

 caused by minute insects, and a few strokes of the sweeping net brought 

 up more than a half-pint of small coleoptera, a species of Thijamis and a 

 minute Olil>n(s being the most abundant ; CoccineUa 7-punctata, and 

 C. ll-ptiJiL'tata, were there by hundreds, C. mutahilis and C. variabilis, C. 

 12-pH)ictata, well represented, with many other species. I found that 

 for more than a mile every stalk at the edge of the bank was thus 

 tenanted, but what they were doing there I cannot imagine, and I am 

 quite puzzled to account for the sudden appearance of such swarms of 

 coleoptera." Of a similar swarm of CrastropJn/sa jwli/i/oni, at Whittles- 

 ford, on the days preceding September 30th, 1868, Bond records 

 {Ent. , iy., Tp. 222) that, "within the last few days, the road, the 

 footpath, the grass and the hedges for the distance of about three 

 quarters of a mile must have been covered with them ; there must be 

 bushels of them, and, although we have had showers, their numbers 

 do not diminish." 



Mapleton notes {Ent. Mo. Mag., xvi., p. 18) that, on Saturday, May 

 3rd, 1879, "a flight of small beetles, Galeruca capreae, fell on the walls 

 and banks of the Crinan Canal, at Cairn Boan, in Argyllshire. The 

 flight extended for about a mile or perhaps rather less, up and down 

 the canal, just opposite the Cairn Boan Hotel. The weather on the 

 morning of this day was calm, though cold, but at 1 p.m. a whirlwind 

 or storm suddenly arose, and at once ruffled the surface of the canal. 

 Some persons at a distance observed a dark cloud hanging over the 

 spot. When the storm had passed the people saw myriads of beetles 

 on the water-banks and roads. Some of the insects were thrown with 

 violence against the windows of a cottage and startled the inmates. 

 The description given of the appearance on the surface of the canal was 

 * as if some one had strewn the water with corn,' others said ' it 

 appeared like stones on the water, and they wondered how the stones 

 got there, and why they did not sink.' They were swept away from 

 the doorways and paths, and even on May 13th there are a good many 

 left in the corners by the loch and by the edge of the canal. One 

 man said that it would not have taken long to get a barrow full." 

 Eye {loc. cit., p. 19) drew attention to the record in Katter's Ent. 

 Nachrichten, ii., p. 53, of a parallel occurrence of swarms of a Galeruca 

 that occurred in northern Norway during a storm. 



Bearing on this subject of flights, possibly due to atmospheric^listurb- 

 ances, there is an interesting article on Argentine coleoptera, by E. Stein- 

 heil, referred to in the Trans. Ent. Soc. Land., 1871, p. 179, in which it is 

 stated that Calnsow a bonariense , Dej., and other Carabidae, could be col- 

 lected in numbers in the middle of November, 1865, and at about the 

 same period, in 1866, in the streets and houses of Buenos Ayres, and that 

 they were wafted there by the Pampero, the stormy west wind, which 

 brings bright weather from the neighbouring pampa, after the rain. 

 It is stated that this was a "true rain" of insects and that the houses, 

 cellars, terraces, rooms, &c., were swarming with the creatures. In 

 connection with this record it seems desirable to mention that Lacor- 

 daire {Int. a VEntomnUuiic, p. 494) notices that, for two consecutive 

 years, whilst he was in Buenos Ayres, this town was, each spring, for 

 eight days, visited by millions of Harpalns cupripennis, which arrived 



