354 WHITE 



OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND 

 VERMES 



INSECTS IN GENERAL. The day and night insects occupy 

 the annuals alternately; the papilios, muscas, and apes are 

 succeeded at the close of day by phalaenae, ear-wigs, wood-lice, 

 etc. In the dusk of the evening, when beetles begin to buzz, 

 partridges begin to call ; these two circumstances are exactly 

 coincident. 



Ivy is the last flower that supports the hymenopterous and 

 dipterous insects. On sunny days quite on to November they 

 swarm on trees covered with this plant ; and when they dis- 

 appear, probably retire under the shelter of its leaves, con- 

 cealing themselves between its fibres and the trees which it 

 entwines. 1 WHITE. 



This I have often observed, having seen bees and other 

 winged insects swarming about the flowers of the ivy, very 

 late in the autumn. MARKWICK. 



Spiders, wood-lice, lepismae in cupboards and among sugar, 

 some empedes, gnats, flies of several species, some phalaenae 

 in hedges, earthworms, etc., are stirring at all times when 

 winters are mild ; and are of great service to those soft-billed 

 birds that never leave us. 



On every sunny day the winter through, clouds of insects 

 usually called gnats (I suppose tipulae and empedes) appear 

 sporting and dancing over the tops of the evergreen trees in 

 the shrubbery, and striking about as if the business of gen- 

 eration was still going on. Hence it appears that these dip- 

 tera (which by their sizes appear to be of different species) 

 are not subject to a torpid state in the winter, as most winged 

 insects are. At night, and in frosty weather, and when it 

 rains and blows, they seem to retire into those trees. They 

 often are out in a fog. WHITE. 



This I have also seen, and have frequently observed swarms 

 of little winged insects playing up and down in the air in the 

 middle of winter, even when the ground has been covered 

 with snow. MARKWICK. 



