248 Periodical Appearaice of certain Insects. 
appeared to rage; they were found alternately the prey of 
each other all over the field. The present year they have dis- 
appeared. Cicindéla campéstris particularly numerous and 
active on dry sunny banks. The Hawk Moths (Sphinges) 
were very prev alent. Sphinx A’tropos, Death’s Head Moth, 
usually rare, was to be met with in every potato field in the 
larva state: many were brought to me by gardeners, who did 
not appear to have noticed them before, from their enquiries 
whether they were poisonous reptiles, Xc. SS. ligustri, Privet 
Hawk Moth, was also numerous. 
1828.—The present year does not appear to be very favour- 
able to the production of insects. The C oledptera have, how- 
ever, been rather numerous: the Lepidoptera, on the contrary, 
scarce. Of the butterflies, Papilio Paphia may be said to be 
more than ordinarily plentiful. Zucanus.Cérvus, Stag Beetle, 
I do not remember to have seen so many in flight | as have 
occurred on still evenings. In May a very large swarm of 
Scarabee'us Melolontha, ‘Cockchafer, alighted i in the gardens, 
but their stay was confined to a few days. It is more than 
seven years since the Scarabze us solstitialis, commonly taken 
for young cockchafers, was seen in any number. One insect, 
however, ,and that a troublesome one, has visited us in quantity 
far exceeding my previous experience; I allude to Stomoxys 
(Conops) cAlcitrans : they out-number the common house fly 
three to one; they much resemble them in appearance, and 
may, pesos be overlooked; but the houses swarm with 
them. 
I must not omit to notice the prodigious flights of Coccinélla 
septempunctata, Lady Bird, which in 1826 visited this neigh- 
bourhood, so as to excite universal notice. ‘They covered the 
fields in all directions, and even the streets of the town were 
filled with them: the whole genus was particularly abundant, 
but the smaller species were not so generally observed. I 
have found that these occasional visitations fr equently extended 
to entire genera, though some one species, from its magnitude 
or beauty, was more particularly noticed. 
These loose remarks will, it is hoped, induce some of your 
scientific correspondents to turn their attention to these 
interesting phenomena of the insect tribes. 
Iam, Sir, &c. 
Portsmouth, Aug. 1. 1828. J. H. Davies. 
