272 Insects. 



ing up an old wall at Paddington ; and another was taken last year at Kensington : 

 the former I had the pleasure of examining whilst alive. It is possible they may have 

 emerged from some old fir-stump, hut I should think it more probable they were intro- 

 duced in timber from Scotland or Norway. — Samuel Stevens ; King St.y Covent Gar- 

 den, July 25, 1843. 



Note on the capture of Rhinomacer attelaboides near Edinburgh. I captured a pair 

 of this rare insect in Dalmeny Park on the 20th of June, while sweeping the grass un- 

 der fir-trees. A few specimens of Sphaeriestes immaculatus have also occurred in the 

 same locality. — R. Northmore Greville ; Queemferry, near Edinburgh, June 28, 1843. 



Note on the blighted appearance of the Oak and Ash Trees in Yorkshire. In this 

 part of the country, the North Riding of Yorkshire, the oak and ash trees have a sin- 

 gular blighted appearance, to an extent which T never before observed. The younger 

 trees, particularly the ashes, have escaped, generally speaking, and look well, but the 

 majority of the larger grown ones have the blasted appearance I have alluded to above. 

 A great many dead branches appear in most, which seem as though they had been 

 struck by lightning, and comparatively few of these trees have the appearance of being 

 in full leaf. For a long time I thought them only backward, and attributed it to the 

 continued heavy rains and want of sun ; but whether this was the cause of their pre- 

 sent state, I am at a loss to know. — F. O. Morris ; Crambe Vicarage, near York, July 

 7, 1843. 



Notes on Ephemera. By The Rev. J. C. Atkinson, B.A. 



" While enjoying the hospitalities of Culhorn, they visited the Loch of Soul-seat 

 {Sedes animarum), remarkable for the myriads of an ephemeral fly, the Eph. albipen- 

 nis, which forms clouds and pillars, rising to the height of above fifty feet, and dark- 

 ening the air like a mass of vapor or smoke. Previous to their transformation into 

 their strictly ephemeral state of winged insects, they are said to live in their subaque- 

 ous abodes for two or three years in the condition of larvce ; but the most singular pe- 

 culiarity of the species is, that they ' throw ofi" a slender envelope or skin, including 

 even that of the limbs, eyes, setm and antenna ; ' and the angler, after remaining only 

 a short time in this entomological mob, is completely covered with the filmy skins of 

 these gay Ephemerse." — Article on Wilson's *■ Voyage round Scotland and the Isles,'' in 

 ^Edinburgh Review,'' for Feb. 1843, p. 174. 



On reading this paragraph I was immediately reminded of a scene 

 I witnessed a few weeks since, on» the banks of the river Whitadder. 

 I was so much interested by what I had seen, that I noted down the 

 chief particulars while the remembrance was still quite fresh ; and I 

 now give the substance of my notes, in the belief that they will not 

 be devoid of interest to the readers of ' The Zoologist.' I will only 

 add that J have had no opportunity of identifying the insect whose 

 changes I noticed, nor yet of examining Mr. Wilson's book for a 

 description of Eph. albipennis. 



June 15th, 1843. By the Whitadder. Immense clouds of small. 



