OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 295 



I do not remember to have seen such swarms, except in the fens of 

 the Isle of Ely. They appear most over grass grounds. WHITE. 



APHIDES. 



On the 1st 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 in 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 Farnham, and all along the vale to Alton. 

 WHITE. 



ANTS. 



August 23. Every ant-hill about this time is 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 aureliae of smaller ants, which they seize by 

 violence. WHITE. 



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 their species, and soon after perish. They were 

 black, somewhat like the small black ant, and had four t wings. I saw also, 

 at another place, a large sort which were yellowish. On the 8th of Sep- 

 tember, 1785, I again observed the same circumstance of a vast number 

 of these insects flying near the tops of the elms and dropping to the 

 ground. 



