MOTIONS OF INSECTS. 481 



selves." l The most remarkable insects in this respect are the sphinxes, 

 and from this they doubtless took their name of hawk-moths. When 

 they unfold their long tongue, and wipe its sweets from any nectariferous 

 flower, they always keep upon the wing, suspending themselves over it 

 till they have exhausted them, when they fly away to another. The 

 species called by collectors the humming-bird (Mawoglossa stellataruni), 

 and by some persons mistaken for a real one, is remarkable for this, and 

 vhe motion of its wings is inconceivably rapid. 2 



The gyrations of insects take place either when they are reposing, or 

 when they are flying or swimming. I was once much diverted by observ- 

 ing the actions of a minute moth upon a leaf on which it was stationed. 

 Making its head the centre of its revolutions, it turned round and round 

 with considerable rapidity, as if it had the vertigo, for some time. 3 I did 

 not, however, succeed in my attempts to take it. Scaliger noticed a si- 

 milar motion in the book-crab (Chelifer cancroides).* 



Reaumur describes in a very interesting and lively way the gyrations of 

 the Ephemerae, before noticed, round a lighted flambeau. It is singular, 

 says he, that moths which fly only in the night, and shun the day, should 

 be precisely those that come to seek the light in our apartments. It is 

 still more extraordinary that these Ephemerae which appearing after 

 sunset, and dying before sunrise, are destined never to behold the light of 

 that orb should have so strong an inclination for any luminous object. 

 To hold a flambeau when they appeared was no very pleasant office ; for 

 he who filled it, in a few seconds had his dress covered with the insects, 

 which rushed from all quarters to him. The light of the flambeau ex- 

 hibited a spectacle which enchanted every one that beheld it. All 

 that were present, even the most ignorant and stupid of his domestics, 

 were never satisfied with looking at it. Never had any armillary sphere 

 so many zones, as there were here circles, which had the light for 

 their centre. There was an infinity of them crossing each other in 

 all directions, and of every imaginable inclination all of which were 

 more or less eccentric. Each zone was composed of an unbroken string 

 of Ephemerae, resembling a piece of silver lace formed into a circle 

 deeply notched, and consisting of equal triangles placed end to end (so 

 that one of the angles of that which followed touched the middle of the 

 base of that which preceded), and moving with astonishing rapidity. The 

 wings of the flies, which was all of them that could then be distinguished, 

 formed this appearance. Each of these creatures, after having described 

 one or two orbits, fell upon the earth or into the water, but not in conse- 

 quence of being burned. 5 Reaumur was one of the most accurate of ob- 

 servers ; and yet I suspect that the appearance he describes was a visual 

 deception, and for the following reason. I was once walking in the day- 

 time with a friend 6 , when our attention was caught by myriads of small 

 flies, which were dancing under every tree j viewed in a certain light 



1 Gardener's Chronicle, 1841, p. 52. 



2 Rai. Hist. Ins. 133, 1. 



3 Mr. Westwood informs us that he has repeatedly observed the same proceeding, 

 and that the insect is Simaethis fabriciana. 



4 Lesser, 1. i. 248. note 22. 



5 Reaum. vi. 484. t. xlv. f. 7. 



6 The persons observing the appearance here related were the authors of this 

 work. 



