CIMEX LINEARIS. 
287 
CIMEX LINEARIS. 
August 12, 17/5. Cimices lineares are now in liigh copulation 
on ponds and pools. The females, wlio vastly exceed the males 
in bulk, dart and shoot along on the surface of the water with 
the males on their backs. When a female chooses to be disen- 
gaged, she rears, and jumps, and plunges, like an unruly colt ; 
the iover thus dismounted, soon finds a new mate. The females, 
as fast as their curiosities are satisfied, retire to another part of 
tlie lake, perhaps to deposit their foetus in quiet ; hence the sexes 
are found separate, except where generation is going on. From 
the multitude of minute young of all gradations of sizes, these 
msects seem without doubt to be viviparous.* 
PHALiENA QUERCUS. 
Most of our oaks are naked of leaves, and even the Holt in 
general, having been ravaged by the caterpillars of a small pha- 
Icena which is of a pale yellow colour. These insectSj though a 
feeble race, yet, from their infinite numbers, are of wonderful 
efifect, being able to destroy the foliage of whole forests and dis- 
tricts. At this season they leave their aurelia, and issue forth in 
their fly-state, swarming and covering the trees and hedges. 
In a field at Greatham, I saw a flight of swifts busied in catch- 
ing their prey near the ground ; and found they were hawking 
after these pJialcencs. The aurelicB of this moth is shining and as 
black as jet ; and lies wrapped up in a leaf of the tree, which is 
rolled round it, and secured at the ends by a web, to prevent the 
maggot from, falling out.f 
MAY FLY. EPHEMERA CAUDA BISETA. 
June 10, l77l. Myriads of May flies appear for the first time 
* Or rather there is little perceptible differeBce between the larva and the imago. — Ed. 
t I suspect that the insect here meant is not the phalcena quercus, but the phalcena viridata 
concerning which I find the following note iu my Naturalist's Calendar for the year 1785-* 
About this time, and for a few days last past, I observed the leaves of almost all the oak trees 
in Den copse to be eaten and destroyed, and, on examining more narrowly, saw an infinite 
number of small beautiful pale green moths flying about the trees, tlie leaves of which that were 
not quite destroyed Mere curled up, and withinside were the exuvlce or remains of the ckrysalist 
from whence I suppose the moths had issued, and whose caterpillar had eaten the leaves. — 
Mark-wick. 
* Tortrix viridana of present systsraatists, an insect of small size, but vivid beautiful green 
coJour (when new from the chrysalis), which, from its excessive abundance, sometimes commits 
frightful ravages upon the oaks. — Ed. 
