76 METAM0BPH0SES OP MAN 



hundred and ninety- seven having been devoured by 

 these ravenous ichneumons.* Assuredly the Paris 

 gardeners ought to reverence this insect as highly 

 as its mammalian namesake was respected by the 

 Egyptians. 



We shall now return to the Neuroptera and take for 

 illustration a group, the short life of whose different 

 species has received the attention of philosophers, 

 naturalists, and even literary men, from the earliest 

 ages.f Following the account given by Reaumur, we 

 shall give a brief sketch of the life-history of the 

 white-winged day-fly [Ephemera albipennis) . 



If, following the example of our distinguished guide, 

 we were to take boat and sail up the Seine or the 

 Marne, we should find that the banks below water- 



"* " Dictionnaire universel d'Histoire naturelle," article " Ichneu- 

 moniens." 



f Aristotle was the first who treated of the ephemeridse, in a 

 passage where truth is curiously blended with the erroneous ideas 

 of his age, and which may possibly interest the reader. " Near the 

 river Hypanis, which flows into the Bosphorus," says the author of 

 the treatise upon animals, " and about midsummer, may be seen 

 several vesicles about the size of a grape-stone, which in bursting, 

 give rise to an animal with four legs and as many wings. These 

 creatures live and fly about until evening ; they become exhausted 

 as the sun sinks in the west, and die when it sets : their life has 

 lasted but a day ; on which account they have been called ephe- 

 mera (which means, lasting for a day)." Pliny and iElian have 

 but repeated Aristotle's statements. In the middle ages, Scaliger 

 made known the fact that ephemeridse were found in France on 

 the banks of the Garonne, and that from their abundance at certain 

 seasons they had been called fishes' manna. Clusius afterwards 

 discovered them in Holland, and described their larva?. At a 

 later period, Swammerdam, Eeaumur, &c, and in our time Kirby, 

 Siebold, Leon Dufour, Burmeister, Pictet, &c, have studied them 

 carefully ; so that at the present day we may consider that the 

 history of these insects is one of the best-known. 



