OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS. 317 



I do not ever remember to have seen such swarms, except 

 in the fens of the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass 

 grounds. 



APHIDES. On the first of August, about half an hour after 

 three in the afternoon, the people of Selborne were surprised 

 by a shower of aphides which fell in these parts. They who 

 were walking the streets at that time found themselves covered 

 with these insects, which settled also on the trees and gardens, 

 and blackened all the vegetables where they alighted. These 

 armies, no doubt, were then in a state of emigration, and 

 shifting their quarters ; and might perhaps come from the 

 great hop plantations of Kent or Sussex, the wind being that 

 day at north. They were observed at the same time at Farn- 

 ham, and all along the vale at Alton. 



ANTS. August 23. Every ant-hill about this time is in a 

 strange hurry and confusion ; and all the winged ants, agitated 

 by some violent impulse, are leaving their homes, and, bent on 

 emigration, swarm by myriads in the air, to the great emolument 

 of the hirundines, which fare luxuriously.* Those that escape 

 the swallows return no more to their nests, but, looking out for 

 fresh settlements, lay a foundation for future colonies. All 

 the females at this time are pregnant ; the males that escape 

 being eaten, wander away and die. 



October 2. Flying ants, male and female, usually swarm 

 and migrate on hot sunny days in August and September ; 

 but this day a vast emigration took place in my garden, and 

 myriads came forth, in appearance from the drain which goes 

 under the fruit wall ; filling the air and the adjoining trees and 

 shrubs with their numbers. The females were full of eggs. 

 This late swarming is probably owing to the backward wet 

 season. The day following, not one flying ant was to be seen. 



Horse ants travel home to their nests laden with flies, which 

 they have caught, and the aurelice of smaller ants, which they 

 seize by violence, f 



* While the ants are a prey to swallows, they, in their turn, prey upon 

 other insects ; that troublesome vermin, the aphides, are devoured in 

 millions by ants, whose hills are near the bushes on which the aphides 

 feed. Ants eat all kinds of animal food. ED. 



f In my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1777, on September 6th, 

 I find the following note to the article, Flying Ants : 



I saw a prodigious swarm of these ants flying about the top of some tall 

 elm trees close by my house : some were continually dropping to the ground 

 as if from the trees, and others rising up from the ground : many of them 

 were joined together in copulation ; and I imagine their life is but short ; 

 for as soon as produced from the egg by the heat of the sun, they propagate 



