A HISTORY OF ESSEX 



custom hitherto to impale these insects on long pins without making 

 any attempt to arrange and display their wings, bodies and legs, and 

 treated in this fashion they are certainly melancholy and pitiable objects ; 

 but a collection in which the specimens are all properly set and arranged 

 is far more useful for all purely scientific purposes, and is calculated to 

 form a source of considerable pleasure to those who are not wholly 

 wanting in all aesthetic sensibility. 



Some of the families into which this order is divided require much 

 attention and revision before even the most competent British entomo- 

 logists can speak with authority about them ; and seeing how small a 

 portion of our own county has been even superficially investigated, it 

 behoves us to be modest in displaying our knowledge even of the better 

 understood families, but a little should be said about some of them. 



The Gall Gnats (Cecidomyidce and their allies) have been fully dealt 

 with by Mr. Fitch, and to his article on the ' Galls of Essex ' (Trans. 

 Essex Field Club, ii. 98-156) reference should be made by any one 

 desiring the best available information concerning them. 



The Bibionidce are represented by about a dozen of the typical genus 

 Bibio. B. venosus, the scarcest of these, is occasionally found at Colchester; 

 B. marci (St. Mark's fly) is a conspicuous black insect which suddenly 

 appears in vast swarms early in the spring, and is one of several insects 

 for the ' bringing over ' of which the rural population make the east wind 

 responsible. 



The Gnats (Culicida, etc.) are well in evidence in mild weather 

 throughout the year. Several of them are only too well known from 

 their blood sucking propensities, and in certain parts of the county 

 species are found which if met with elsewhere would be called mosqui- 

 toes, and would have as good a right to the name as other members of 

 the same family to which it appears to be somewhat indiscriminately 

 applied. 



The Crane-flies (Tipulida:}, more familiarly known as 'Daddy-long- 

 legs,' are numerous, and some of them, such as Tipula gigantea, T", lutes- 

 cens, etc., are large and handsome insects ; but their legs are so loosely 

 joined to their bodies that it is extremely difficult to prepare them for 

 the cabinet in perfect condition, and therefore they do not receive the 

 attention from collectors which they otherwise deserve. Among the 

 better species Dictenidia bimaculata occurs at Colchester, and the hand- 

 some Ctenophora flaveolata has been captured by Mr. G. F. Mathew at 

 Dovercourt. 



The Stratiomyida include some fine insects, notably Stratiomys pota- 

 mida, S. longicornis and Odontomyia ornata, which are occasionally found at 

 Colchester, and S. furcata and O. tigrina, which occur on the coast. The 

 species of Sargus and Chloromyia are elegant insects with brilliant green 

 and purple metallic bodies ; they are well distributed and not un- 

 common. 



The Tabanidce or Breeze-flies, also known as Gadflies, which are so 

 troublesome to horses and cattle and occasionally to mankind, are natur- 



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