30/1 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC INSECTS CH. j; 



I saw in the evening a great crowd of small T'lics, y 



a little larger than Gnats. So many settled on my i 



clothes that I was completely covered with them, | 



and great numbers left their thin pellicles behind on ;i 



my clothes. I observed that they betook themselves j 



to the water, and sported there like Palingcnia. The 'i 



larvae of this second species do not live in mud, or \ 



make tubes, but live for the most part on stony or ji 

 sand}' bottoms. They are tougher and hardier than 

 Palingenia, and their skin is more like that of a Crab 

 or a Shrimp. They have gills along the sides of the 

 body. If any one in the month of June takes stones 



out of the Rhine, the Leek, or other of our native | 



streams, he will see many of the larvae clinging to « 

 them. I have seen the same thing in the Loire, the 



Seine, and other rivers of France." i 



Reaumur gives us a very lively account of one I 



species of Ephemera (Polymitarcys virgo), besides j 



notices of some others. The following is a condensed j 



translation of the twelfth memoir of his sixth s 



volume. . I 



" Many kinds of Flies are doomed to perish on the | 



very day on which they emerge, and are hence called j 



Ephemerse or Dayflies. Some do not even see the j 

 light of the sun ; they emerge after he has set, and 

 die before he rises again ; others live an hour or even 



half an hour only. i 



" The wings of the adult Ephemera are trans- 

 parent, and shorter as well as broader than those ' 

 of common Flies. There are two pairs, ^ the fore j 



^ Sometimes reduced to one, the hind pair being undeveloped j 



in certain species. n ! 



