The Natural History of Selborne 343 



threads. At first I suspected it to be the product of spiders, but 

 could find none. Nothing was to be seen connected with it but 

 many brown oval husky shells, which by no means looked like 

 insects but rather resembled bits of the dry bark of the vine. The 

 tree had a plentiful crop of grapes set, when this pest appeared 

 upon it ; but the fruit was manifestly injured by this foul incum- 

 brance. It remained all the summer, still increasing, and loaded 

 the woody and bearing branches to a vast degree. I often pulled 

 off great quantities by handfuls ; but it was so slimy and tenacious 

 that it could by no means be cleared. The grapes never filled to 

 their natural perfection, but turned watery and vapid. Upon 

 perusing the works afterwards of M. de Reaumur, I found this 

 matter perfectly described and accounted for. Those husky shells 

 which I had observed, were no other than the female coccus, from 

 whose side this cotton-like substance exudes, and serves as a covering 

 and security for their eggs." 



To this account I think proper to add, that, though the female 

 cocci are stationary, and seldom remove from the place to which 

 they stick, yet the male is a winged insect ; and that the black dust 

 which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the females, which 

 is eaten by ants as well as flies. Though the utmost severity of 

 our winter did not destroy these insects, yet the attention of the 

 gardener in a summer or two has entirely relieved my vine from 

 this filthy annoyance. 



As we have remarked above that insects are often conveyed from 

 one country to another in a very unaccountable manner, I shall here 

 mention an emigration of small aphides, which was observed in the 

 village of Selborne no longer ago than August the first, 1785. 



About three o'clock in the afternoon of that day, which was very 

 hot, the people of this village were surprised by a shower of aphides, 

 or smother-flies, which fell in these parts. Those that were walking 

 in the street at that juncture found themselves covered with these 

 insects, which settled also on the hedges and gardens, blackening all 

 the vegetables where they alighted. My annuals were discoloured 

 with them, and the stalks of a bed of onions were quite coated over 

 for six days after. These armies were then, no doubt, in a state of 



