1866.] 183 



season was an exception to the rule, inasmuch as numerous swarms of these 

 creatures ai^pcared as early as the 25th and 26th July, which shows a difference of 

 about a month in the time of their appearance. 



It is natural to suppose that the remarkably hot and dry summer, with which 

 Switzerland was favoured this year, has caused the waters of the river Rhine to 

 attain that degi-ee of warmth, which is necessary for the development of these 

 insects, much earlier in the season than in other colder years ; and I am told that, 

 on those two evenings mentioned above, the water had at sunset a temperatvire of 

 19 degi-ees Reaumur, which is unusually warm for so late in the day. 



Those of your readers who have never witnessed this beautiful scene of insect 

 life, the dance of Ephemeridce, may form an idea of the sight of the swarms of 

 Oligoneiina rJienana if I tell them that at times a glance over the river will show 

 it as if covered with a brilliant whitish undulating veil of gauze, rising and falling 

 in a thousand different folds, and this spectacle reaching as far as the eye can follow 

 the course of the river. 



No wonder that the contemplation of such a wonderful phenomenon has given 

 rise to reflections as in the following verse : — 



" And the fly that is born with the sinking sun. 



To die ere the midnight hour, 

 May have deeper joy, ere his course is run, 



Xhan man in his pride and power. 

 And tlie Insects' minutes be spared the fears 



And the anxious doubts of our ihreescore years." 



As a further illustration of their prodigious numbers, T may add that one of 

 my friends counted about 200 specimens in the cobwebs taken from one lamp-post 

 near the river, and one can understand how accumulations of the dead bodies of 

 another " day-fly " have received, in certain parts of Germany, the name of 

 " Uferaas" (carrion of the river banks). — Albert Mullee. 



Correction to note on JAmneijldlus srJbccntralis. — I regret to say that I erro- 

 neously recorded this species as British in the last number of the Magazine. I had 

 misplaced the labels on my types, and did not discover the mistake until I received 

 the monograph, when my previous notice was already in type. — A. E. Eaton, 

 Cambridge, December 1st, 1865. 



Argynnis Latlionia, cf-c, in Kent.— Whilst entomologising at Sandgate during 

 the past autumn, I took several specimens of both Colias Hyale and C. var. Helice, 

 the typical C. Edusa being the greatest profusion. 



A friend of mine caught a fine specimen of Argynnis Lathonia at Tenterdcn 

 last September. — M. A. Addison, Cranbrook, Kent. 



Captures of Lepidoptera at Powick. — I have sent the names of a few insects 

 captured by myself this season. 



Thecla W-album, on flowers of grass, June 22nd, a new locality for this 

 species ; Cymatophora ridens, at light, April I7th ; Neuria saponarice, at hght and 

 sugar, end of May, this is a new locality ; Agrotis ravida at light and sugar, middle 

 of June ; Phorodesma bajularia, a ? , at dusk, June 19th ; Antielea rubidata, at 

 light, June 20th ; Camptogramma Jliiviata, at light, September 22ud. — G. J 

 Heabder, Powick, near Worcester, November, 1865. 



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