358 WHITE 



jumps, and plunges, like an unruly colt ; the lover thus dis- 

 mounted, soon finds a new mate. The females, as fast as 

 their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of the lake, 

 perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet ; hence the sexes are 

 found separate, except where generation is going on. From 

 the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these 

 insects seem without doubt to be viviparous. WHITE. 



PHAL^ENA QUERCUS. Most of our oaks are naked of 

 leaves, and even the Holt in general, having been ravaged by 

 the caterpillars of a small phalaena which is of a pale yellow 

 color. These insects, though a feeble race, yet, from their 

 infinite numbers, are of wonderful effect, being able to destroy 

 the foliage of whole forests and districts. At this season they 

 leave their aurelia, and issue forth in their fly state, swarming 

 and covering the trees and hedges. 



In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in 

 catching their prey near the ground ; and found they were 

 hawking after these phalaenae. The aureliae of this moth is 

 shining and as black as jet; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of 

 the tree, which is rolled round it, and secured at the ends by 

 a web, to prevent the maggot from falling out. WHITE. 



I suspect that the insect here meant is not the phalcetia 

 guercus, but the phal&na viridata, concerning which I find 

 the following note in my "Naturalist's Calendar" for the 

 year 1785. 



About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed 

 the leaves of almost all the oak-trees in Denn copse to be 

 eaten and destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw 

 an infinite number of small, beautiful, pale green moths flying 

 about the trees; the leaves of which that were not quite 

 destroyed were curled up, and withinside were the exuviae or 

 remains of the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the moths 

 had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves. 

 MARKWICK. 



EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA; MAY-FLY. June loth, 1771. 

 Myriads of May-flies appear for the first time on the Aires- 

 ford stream. The air was crowded with them, and the surface 



