IMPEnFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 5 



Less, as might seem, for general guarcliansliip 

 Or ihrougli dependance upon mutual aid, 

 Than by ])articipa(ioii of d*'iight, 

 And a strict love of fellowship combined. 

 AVhat other spirit can it be that prompts 

 The gilded summer flies to mis and weave 

 Their sports together in tlic solar beam, 

 Or in the gloom and tniliglit hum their joy ?" 



Another association is that of males during- the sea- 

 son of pairing-. Of this nature seems to be that of the 

 cockchafer and feriichafer {McIolontJta vulgaris and 

 solstitialis, F.), 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 ab'ght on the ground, a grateful food to cats, pigs, 

 and poultry. The males of another root-devouring 

 beetle (IfopHa argenlea, F.) assemble by myriads be- 

 fore noon in the meadows, when in these infinite Iiosts 

 you will not find even one female^. After noon tlie 

 congregation is dissolved, and not a single individual 

 is to be seen in the air^ : while those of Mdolontlia 

 vulgaris and solstitialis are on the wing only in the 

 evening. 



At the same time of the day some of tiie short-lived 

 Ephemerae assemble in numerous troops, and keep 

 rising and falling- alternately in the air, so as to exhi- 

 bit a very amusing scene. Many of these aho are 

 males. They continue this dance from about an hour 

 Ijefore sun-set, till the dew becomes too heavy or too 



^ The f^^^malcs {Scarahmis nr^cntnis. Marsh.) I'.avc red legs, and the 

 males (ScarahiEHs jjulvcruhnius, Marsli.) black. 

 ^ Kirby in Linn. Trans, v. 25G. 



