414 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 
they easily overcome in warm weather, when they are brisk and 
alert. But in the decline of the year, this resistance becomes too 
mighty for their diminished strength ; and we see flies labouring 
along, and lugging their feet in windows as if they stuck to the 
glass, and it is with the utmost difficulty they can draw one foot 
after another, and disengage their hollow caps from the slippery 
surface. 
Upon the same principle that flies stick and support themselves, 
do boys, by way of play, carry heavy weights by only a piece of 
wet leather at the end of a string clapped close on the surface of a 
stone.—W HITE. 
LIPULA, OR EMPERES: 
May. Millions of emfedes, or tipule, come forth at the close of 
day, and swarm to such a degree as to fill the air. At this juncture 
they sport and copulate; as it grows more dark they retire. All 
day they hide in the hedges. As they rise in a cloud they appear 
like smoke. 
I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the 
fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. 
WHITE. 
APHIDES. 
On the 1st of August, about half an hour after three in the after- 
noon, the people of Selborne were surprised by a shower of aphides 
which fell in these parts. They who were walking in the streets at 
that time found themselves covered with these insects, which settled 
also on the trees and gardens, and blackened all the vegetables 
where they alighted. These armies, no doubt, were then in a state 
of emigration, and shifting their quarters ; and might perhaps come 
from the great hop-plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being 
that day at north. They were observed at the same time at 
Farnham, and all along the vale to Alton.— WHITE. 
ANTS. 
August 23. Every ant-hill about this time is in a strange hurry and 
confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated by some violent 
