230 OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 



having gone to seek them, I speak not in reference 

 to rare and interesting species, but of the commoner 

 kinds, which usually obtrude themselves upon us, go 

 where we will. Many of these, which in ordinary 

 seasons appear at stated times with the greatest regu- 

 larity, and of which I am in the habit of recording 

 the first appearance in my journal, have not shewn 

 themselves in a single instance. Some plantations 

 close at hand, and through which I constantly pass, 

 and which usually abound with several common 

 Lepidoptera, as well as species of the other orders, 

 have been as it were deserted. Such common insects 

 as the scorpion-fly (Panorpa communis), and the two 

 horse-flies, Hcematopota pluvialis and Chrysops ccscu- 

 tiens, have been wholly wanting. Scarcely an 

 Amara, a Harpalus, a Pcecilus, or a Silpha, have 

 crossed my path in my walks on any occasion. Not 

 one admiral butterfly has been seen in the garden, 

 nor one of the small coppers (Lycana phlceas) in the 

 meadow adjoining : very few even of the common 

 blue there ; or of the meadow brown (Hipparchia 

 janira) and the great heath (H. tithonus) in the 

 hedges. No Noctuida, have entered the rooms after 

 dusk : no bottles have been required upon the fruit- 

 trees to catch the wasps, of which not a score have 

 been seen the whole summer ; and hardly any of the 

 great harry-long-legs (Tipula oleracea), generally so 

 plentiful, have appeared in the field before the 

 house. The same scarcity of insects has continued 

 through the autumn. The common dragon-fly (Li- 

 bellula vulgata)) which generally swarms in August 

 and September near some water in the immediate 



