2002 Insects. 



has not always proved an impassable barrier ; and in the year 1593 clouds of locusts 

 were seen in Wales. In the eighteenth volume of the ' Philosophical Transactions ' 

 there is also an account of their again visiting this country, in the year 1748. This 

 is the last visitation of which I have been able to find a notice, and the instances, or 

 at least the observers, have in each case been confined to the midland parts of our is- 

 land, exclusive of the extreme north or west. It becomes therefore a matter of inte- 

 rest to the natives of Cornwall to learn, that in the present year (1846), the locust has 

 not only visited and been diffused over England, but that it has also been found as 

 far north as Scotland, and westward in our own native county. For the knowledge of 

 their presence in Scotland I am indebted to the authority of the newspapers ; which 

 also announced in the first instance their flight into England across the narrowest 

 parts of the Channel. But that it has been a visitant to Cornwall, I have the evidence 

 of a specimen which, early in the month of September, flew into a house in East 

 Looe, and which was captured alive after it had given its pursuers some remarkable 

 instances of its agility. This specimen is in the possession of Mr. Clement Jackson, 

 who has carefully and skilfully preserved it ; and to his kindness I owe the opportu- 

 nity of obtaining a coloured drawing, and of satisfying myself of its certainly being 

 the true Gryllus migratorius. It appears from a variety of evidence, that some speci- 

 mens of this insect were also taken within a short distance of the Land's End. It 

 may be a subject of some interest to inquire what can have been the cause by which, 

 at such considerable intervals of time, these creatures of a distant and warmer climate 

 have been drawn to visit this extremity of Britain. And in the first place the remark 

 is obvious, that it is not from the influence of boisterous winds, which have irresistibly 

 wafted them away from their native haunts. On the contrary, the past summer has 

 for the most part been calm, and for two or three months previous to their visit re- 

 markably so. But with the general tendency to calm there has been also a condition 

 of climate and temperature which was not indeed exceedingly hot, but which yet con- 

 veyed an impression of genial warmth, greatly resembling what is described as usual 

 at their active periods in their native regions, and which therefore may be supposed to 

 be that which is most consistent with their settled habits. It seems to be a repugnancy 

 to certain conditions of the atmosphere, — among which perhaps humidity and a ten- 

 dency to chill are the most influential, — that proves a more effectual hindrance to 

 wandering, in a variety of creatures, than any geographical limits of mountain or 

 ocean ; and when for a time, as during the last summer, the atmospheric state of a 

 region has received the impress of a new condition, it is not surprising that creatures, 

 hitherto repelled, should acquire a disposition to extend their range of flight to our 

 shores. — Jonathan Couch ; Polperro. 



Occurrence of the Locust at Battel. — On the 13th of September a man brought me 

 a locust alive. He caught two, but one escaped before he could secure it properly. — 

 /. B. Ellman; Battel, October 4, 1847. 



Occurrence of the Locust in London. — This evening (October 12th) a small specimen 

 of Locusta migratoria was brought to me, taken a few days previously at the back of 

 the London Hospital. — J. Fremlyn Streatfeild ; Chart's Edge, Wcsterham, Kent. 



Generation of Aphides, — " The history of the plant-louse, as ascertained by Lccuwen- 

 hoek, Bonnet, Reaumur, and others, is so generally known to naturalists, that it is al- 

 most an act of supererogation for any one merely to repeat the observations of those 

 authorities; and we cannot expect to add much to the very ample details they have 1 

 given : yet the facts they have recorded respecting the generation of Aphides are in 



