IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



the east. They were observed at the same time in great 

 clouds about Farnham, and all along the vale from Farn- 

 ham to Alton a . A similar emigration of these flies I 

 once witnessed, to my great annoyance, when travelling 

 later in the year, in the 'Isle of Ely. The air was so 

 full of them, that they were incessantly flying into my 

 eyes, nostrils, &c. ; and my clothes were covered by 

 them. And in 18 14-, in the autumn, the Aphides were 

 so abundant for a few days in the vicinity of Ipswich, 

 as to be noticed with surprise by the most incurious 

 observers. 



As the locust-eating thrush (Turdus gryttivorus) ac- 

 companies the locusts, so the lady-birds (Coccinetta*) 

 seem to pursue the Aphides ; for I know no other reason 

 to assign for the vast number that are sometimes, espe- 

 cially in the autumn, to be met with on the sea-coast or 

 the banks of large rivers. Many years ago, those of the 

 Humber were so thickly strewed with the common La- 

 dy-bird (C. septempunctata), that it was difficult to avoid 

 treading upon them. Some years afterwards 1 noticed 

 a mixture of species, collected in vast numbers, on the 

 sand-hills on the sea-shore, at the north-west extremity 

 of Norfolk. My friend the Rev. Peter Lathbury made 

 long since a similar observation at Orford, on the Suffolk 

 coast ; and about five or six years ago they covered the 

 cliffs, as I have before remarked b , of all the watering- 

 places on the Kentish and Sussex coasts, to the no small 

 alarm of the superstitious, who thought them forerunners 

 of some direful evil. These last probably emigrated with 

 the Aphides from the hop-grounds. Whether the latter 

 and their devourers cross the sea has not been ascer- 

 a Nat. Hist. ii. 101. b VOL. I. 2 



