quantities by handfuls: but it was so slimy and tena- 

 cious that it could by no means be cleared. The 

 grapes never filled to their natural perfection, but 

 turned watery and vapid. Upon perusing the works 

 afterwards of M. de Reaumur, I found this matter 

 perfectly described and accounted for. Those husky 

 shells, which I had observed, were no other than the 

 female coccus, from whose sides this cotton-like sub- 

 stance exudes, and serves as a covering and security 

 for their eggs." 



To this account I think proper to add, that, 

 though the female cocci are stationary, and seldom 

 remove from the place to which they stick, yet the 

 male is a winged insect; and that the black dust 

 which I saw was undoubtedly the excrement of the 

 females, which is eaten by ants as well as flies. 

 Though the utmost severity of our winter did not 

 destroy these insects, yet the attention of the gar- 

 dener in a summer or two has entirely relieved my 

 vine from this filthy annoyance. 



As we have remarked above that insects are often 

 conveyed from one country to another in a very un- 

 accountable manner, I shall here mention an emigra- 

 tion of small aphides, which was observed in the 

 village of Selborne no longer ago than August the 

 1st, 1785. 



At about three o'clock in the afternoon of that 

 day, which was very hot, the people of this village 

 were surprised by a shower of aphides, or smother- 



153 



