122 Forty-first Report on the State Museum. 



Abundance of the May-flies. 

 The name of "May-fly " has been given to many species of these frail 

 and delicate creatures, in consideration of the month in which a num- 

 ber of them make their appearance in early spring. The Ephemeridce — 

 the name of the family to which they belong — occur in abundance 

 every season in the vicinity of lakes and rivers, but as their flights sel- 

 dom extend to a great distance, and the time of their appearance may 

 be limited to two or three days, they often escape observation. It is 

 only when they appear in unusual abundance that they attract wide- 

 spread attention. In the latter part of June, 1880, a species was 

 observed by me, during a few days, at a summer encampment at Lake 

 Bluff, on Sodus bay, Lake Ontario, in such numbers as almost to cover 

 the tents and the surrounding foliage. Upon others of our lakes 

 their dead bodies have been cast up by the waters in windrows on 



the shore. 



Remarkable Occurrences of Ephemeridae. 



Sevei*al instances are recorded of their appearance in almost 

 incredible numbers along the rivers in France. One account compares 

 their flight to a snow-storm of the largest flakes, and states that they 

 accumulated on the ground about the feet of the observer to a depth 

 of four inches; eyes, nostrils and mouth were filled by them. At 

 another time they were so abundant at a locality in Carniola, in June, 

 that twenty cart-loads were drawn away for manure. 



The summer of 1884, proved to be very favorable for their multipli- 

 cation in unusual numbers in New York and neighboring states. 

 Their remarkable abundance at different localities in the vicinity of 

 the great lakes, was repeatedly made the occasion of newsj^aper 

 comment. The following notice from the American Agriculturist, 

 for October, 1884 (page 429), is deserving of record, although not sur- 

 passing in its statements a number of other accounts of similar phe- 

 nomena at other places. 



Sand Flies Extraordinary. — We were not a little surprised, on 

 alighting from the carriage at nine o'clock on a last July evening, at 

 the Leland Hotel, Chicago, located close by the lake-shore, to find the 

 air filled with snow-flakes — so it appeared. It was certainly a phe- 

 nomenon — a snow storm in midsummer ! The air was filled with 

 these apparent flakes. The porters were sweeping from the sidewalks 

 around the hotel the two or three inches of gathered " snow." The 

 Brush lights were flickering as if about to go wholly out, submerged 

 by the flakes which were rapidly filling the glass globes surrounding 

 them. One light had already been quite " suffocated," and the globe 

 filled to the top. Rifts of " snow " swept into the passage-ways lead- 

 ing to the rotunda, and the verandas along the lake-side of the hotel, 

 were fairly flecked from one end to the other with the whitening 

 shower. It was indeed a most astonishing sight with the thermometer 



