1Q4i [December, 



little earlier in the season in 1879, some interesting Trichoptera were collected. 

 This year, owing to circumstances not known to me, the insects were not of the I 

 same set. But I was amply repaid in another way. At a village a little further on, j 

 a stream runs into the Khine almost at a right angle, and at about 5.30 p.m. I saw I 

 Oligoneuria flying rather wildly up-stream, but in no great numbers. On my way 

 back to Basle there were also a few on the Rhine itself up to 6.30 ; but at that hour, 

 as if by magic, the air above the river was one mass of Oligoneuria, all flying in a I 

 steady business-like manner up-stream, and against the little wind there was. They \ 

 avoided the sides where the current is slower, and the lowest were at least eight feet 

 above the surface, so the fishes had no chance. Such a sight as this is worth a J 

 jonrney from England to an entomologist. It can be no exaggeration to say that 

 millions passed up-stream before I again arrived at the old bridge. This latter 

 disconcerted the swarm, as it was right in the line of flight, and any number could | 

 there be caught in the hand. Even the usually stolid citizens were struck by the I 

 phcenomenon, so I suspect the swarm was greater than ordinarily. If there were a \ 

 stopping-point, up-stream, the accumulations there must have been enormous. 



One interesting observation was made, viz : that Oligoneuria casts its subimagi- 

 nal skin when on the wing, and does not rest to do it, as do other PJphemeridce.:, 

 Mr. Eaton tells me he also has made a similar observation, and is of opinion that I 

 the pellicle on the wings is not shed with that of the body, because he could never i 

 find this sheathing of the wings on the cast skins. 0. rhenana occurs also at Zurich. I 

 — R. McLaohlan, Lewisham : November 1st, 1880. 



Charagochilus Gyllenhali macropterous. — The common C. Gyllenhali, of short, 

 broad-oval form, has the elytra not longer than the abdomen, the cuneus and! 

 membrane being abruptly deflected and closely incumbent thereon. On the 26th. i 

 September, 1879, in Darenth Wood, I swept up an example (<?) which agrees with! 

 the characters of this species except that the elytra are not deflected but horizontal; J 

 throughout and extend far beyond the end of the abdomen, the membrane j 

 especially being enlarged both in length and breadth. The antenna, particularly in,; 

 the second joint, and the posterior tibiae are longer than in the usual form. The, 

 length of the insect is 2 lines fully. I cannot find that this macropterous form of j 

 this species has ever been observed, and I think, therefore, that it is uncommon and i 

 worth noting.* 



Reuter, in his " Q-enera Cimicidarum Europse," puts Charagochilus, Fieb.,'j 

 Systratiotus, D. & S., and Posciloscytus, Fieb., as sub-genera of one genus, to which! j 

 I see no objection ; but he calls this genus Pceciloscytus of Fieber, which it evidently 

 is not — but of Reuter only. If the names are to be regarded merely as generic ii 

 appellations which may be used without reference to the application given to their I 

 by their author, then any one of them would do as a collective term ; in point oil 

 fact, Charagochilus has numerical precedence in Fieber's " Criterien zur generischen J 

 Theilung der Phytocoriden " (Wiener ent. Monatsch., ii, 1858). — J. W. Douglas., J 

 Lewisham : November 15th, 1880. 



Macropterous forms in the genera Ulisstis and Plinthisus. — In connection with 

 the foregoing note on maximum development, I may draw attention to the interesting 



* See the remarks of Dr. Reuter on polymorphism in Hemiptera in the Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 

 1875, p. £ih. 





