S IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



tions anotlier of the TipuUdce (from the antennae in his 

 figure, which is very indifferent, it should seem a spe- 

 cies of agaric-gnat (Mj/ceiop/iila) ), the larvae of which 

 live in society and emigrate in files, like the caterpillar 

 of the procession-moth. First goes one, next follow 

 two, then three, &c., so as to exhibit a serpentine ap- 

 pearance, probably from their simultaneous undulating 

 motion and the continuity of the files ; whence the com- 

 mon people in Germany call them (or rather the file 

 when on march) heerzciirm, and view them with great 

 dread, regarding them as ominous of war. These larvee 

 are apodes, white, subtransparcnt, with black heads^'. 

 — But of insect emigrants none are more celebrated 

 than the locusts, which, when arrived at their perfect 

 state, assemble as before related, in such numbers, as 

 in their flight to intercept the sun-beams, and to darken 

 whole countries; passing from one region to another, 

 and laying waste kingdom after kingdom : — but upon 

 these I have already said much, and shall have occa- 

 sion a^ain to enlarge. — The sauie tendency to shift 

 their quarters has been observed in our little indige- 

 nous devourers, the Aphides, Mr. White tells us, 

 that about three o'clock in the afternoon of the first of 

 August 1785, the people of the village of Seiborne 

 were surprised by a shower of Aphides or smother-flies, 

 which fell in those parts. Tiiose that walked in the 

 street at that juncture found themselves covered with 

 these insects, which settled also upon the hedges and in 

 the gardens, blackening all the vegetables where they 

 alighted. His annuals were discoloured by them, and 

 the stalks of a bed of onions quite coated over for six 



* Nalurforsc'\ xvii. '226. 



