21 6 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO IGQ?. 



On Siiarms oj' Insects,* that infested some Parts of the Province of Connoughl in 

 Ireland. By Dr. Thomas Molyneux, F. R. S. N° 234, p. 741. 



These insects were first noticed in this kingdom in l6S8. They appeared on 

 the south-west coast of the county of Galiway, brought thither by a south-west 

 wind, one of the common, I might almost say trade-winds, of this country. 

 From hence they penetrated into the more inland parts towards Heddford, about 

 J 2 miles north from the town of Galiway; here and in the adjacent country 

 multitudes of them appeared among the trees and hedges in the day-time, 

 hanging by the boughs in clusters, sticking to the back of each other, like 

 bees when they swarm. In this clinging posture they continued, with little or 

 no motion, during the heat of the sun ; but towards evening or sunset, they 

 would all rise, disperse, and fly about, with a strange humming noise, like the 

 beating of drums at some distance, and in such vast numbers, that they darkened 

 the air for the space of 2 or 3 miles square. Persons travelling on the roads, 

 or abroad in the fields, found it very uneasy to make their way through them, 

 they would so beat and knock themselves against their faces in their flight, and 

 with such a force, as to make the place smart, and leave a slight mark behind 

 them. 



In a short time after their coming, they had so entirely eat up and destroyed 

 all the leaves of the trees for some miles round about, that the whole country, 

 though it was in the middle of summer, was left as bare and naked as if it had 

 been in the depth of winter; and the noise they made, in gnawing the leaves, 

 made a sound much resembling the sawing of timber. They also came into 

 the gardens, and destroyed the buds, blossoms, and leaves of all the fruit-trees, 

 so that they were left perfectly naked ; nay, many of them that were more deli- 

 cate and tender than the rest, lost their sap as well as leaves, and quite withered 

 away, so as they never recovered it again. 



Their multitudes spread so exceedingly, that they infested houses, and became 

 extremely offensive and troublesome. Their numerous creeping spawn, which 

 they had lodged under groiuul, next the upper sod of the earth, did still more 

 harm, in that close retirement, than all the flying swarms of their parents had 

 done abroad ; for tliis young destructive brood, lying under ground, devoured the 

 roots of the corn and grass, and thus destroyed both the support of man and 

 beast. This spawn, when first it gave signs of life, appeared like a large mag- 

 got, and by taking food, and increasing every day, became a larger worm, till 



* The insect whose ravages are here described is the scarabceus mdulontha of Liunxus, or common 

 cockchafer. 



