S48 Periodical Appearance of ce) tain Insects, 



appeared to rage ; they were found alternately the prey of 

 each other all over the field. The present year they have dis- 

 appeared. Cicindela campestris particularly numerous and 

 active on dry sunny banks. The Hawk Moths (»Sphinges) 

 were very prevalent. iSphinx A'tropo5, 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, &c. S, 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 Coleoptera 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. Xucanus Cervus, 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 

 iScarabae^us Melolontha, Cockchafer, alighted in the gardens, 

 but their stay was confined to a few days. It is more than 

 seven years since the 5carabae^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 

 tnay, therefore, be overlooked; but the houses swarm with 

 them, 



I must not omit to notice the prodigious flights of Coccinella 

 septempunctata. Lady Bird, which in 1826 visited this neigh- 

 bourhood, so as to excite universal notice. They covered the 

 fields iri 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 frequently 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. 



I am, Sir, &c. 

 Portsmouth, Aug, 1. 1828. J. H. Davies. 



1 



