MA Y-FLIES. 57 



not only in itself, but also as the representative type 

 of a host of others, all well known to fishermen and 

 entomologists, still not so well known as they might 

 be. 



MAY-FLIES. 



Fishermen generally believe that the May-fly, the 

 Epliemera vulgata of naturalists, is represented by two 

 individuals, respectively termed the green drake and 

 the grey drake, the one being the male the other the 

 female of the same species of insect. This is an error, 

 though a very natural one, under the circumstances. 

 The writer, being both fisherman and entomologist, 

 would like to bridge over the gulf formed by this 

 difference in opinion, and there could scarcely be a 

 more eligible place for setting such a question on its 

 true basis, for probably the first time, than in these 

 pages, devoted alike to natural histoiy and fishing. 



For considering this subject minutely, no apology 

 need be requisite ; it has been well said that 



" Each, crawling insect holds a rank, 

 Important in the plan of Him, who formed 

 This scale of beings ; a rank which, lost, 

 Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap, 

 Which nature's self would rue." 



The remarkable metamorphoses undergone by 

 many of the insect tribes are generally known to the 

 most unobservant. There is, however, a peculiar fea- 



