OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 311 



the tree, which is rolled round it, and secured at the ends by 

 a web, to prevent the maggot from falling out. * 



EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA, (MAY FLY.) June 10, 1771. 

 Myriads of May flies appeared, for the first time, on the Aires- 

 ford stream. The air was crowded with them, and the surface 

 of the water covered. Large tiouts sucked them in as they 

 lay struggling on the surface of the stream, unable to rise till 

 their wings were dried. 



This appearance reconciled me, in some measure, to the 

 wonderful account that Scopoli gives of the quantities emerging 

 from the rivers of Carniola. Their motions are very peculiar, 

 up and down for many yards almost in a perpendicular line.f 



SPHYNX OCELLATA. A vast insect appears after it is dusk, 

 flying with a humming noise, and inserting its tongue into the 



I suspect that the insect here meant, is not the phalana quercus, 

 but the phalcena viridata, concerning which, I find the following note in 

 my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1785: 



About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed the leaves of 

 almost all the oak trees in Denn copse, to be eaten and destroyed, and, on 

 examining more narrowly, saw an infinite number of small beautiful pale 

 green moths flying about the trees ; the leaves of which, that were not 

 quite destroyed, were curled up, and withinside were the exuvia, or 

 remains, of the chrysalis, from whence I suppose the moths had issued, 

 and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves. MARKWICK. 



f I once saw a swarm of these insects playing up and down over the 

 surface of a pond in Denn Park, exactly in the manner described by thig 

 accurate naturalist. It was late in the evening of a warm summer day 

 when I observed them. MARKWJCK. 



