370 MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 



Reaumur describes in a very interesting and lively 

 ivay the gyrations of the EphemersB before noticed'', 

 round a lighted flambeau. It is singular, says he, 

 that moths which fly only in the night, and shun the 

 day, should be precisely those that come to seek the 

 light in our apartments. It is still more extraordinary 

 that these Ephemerae — which appearing after sun-set, 

 and dying before sun-rise, are destined never to behold 

 the light of that orb — should have so strong an inclina- 

 tion for any luminous object. To hold a flambeau 

 when they appeared was no very pleasant office ; for 

 he who filled it, in a few seconds had his dress covered 

 with the insects, which rushed from all quarters to him. 

 The light of the flambeau exhibited a spectacle which 

 enchanted every one that beheld it. All that were pre- 

 sent, even the most ignorant and stupid of his domes- 

 tics, were never satisfied with looking at it. Never had 

 any armillary sphere so many zones, as there were here 

 circles, which had the light for their centre. There 

 was an infinity of them — crossing each other in all di- 

 rections, and of every imaginable inclination — all of 

 which were more or less eccentric. Each zone was 

 composed of an unbroken string of Ephemerae, resem- 

 bling a piece of silver lace formed into a circle deeply 

 notched, and consisting of equal triangles placed end 

 to end (so that one of the anglesof that which followed 

 touched the middle of the base of that which preceded), 

 and moving with astonishing rapidity. The wings of 

 the flies, which was all of them that could then be di- 

 btinguished, formed this appearance. Each of these 

 creatures, after having described one or two orbits, fell 



" Vol. I. 2d Ed. 282—. 



