164 
[ December, 
little earlier in the season in 1879, some interesting Trichoptera were collected. 
This year, owing to circumstances not known to me, the insects were not of the 
same set. But I was amply repaid in another way. At a village a little further on, 
a stream runs into the Rhine almost at a right angle, and at about 5.30 p.m. I saw 
Oligoneuria flying rather wildly up-stream, but in no great numbers. On my way 
back to Basle there were also a few on the Rhine itself up to 6.30 ; but at that hour, 
as if by magic, the air above the river was one mass of Oligoneuria, all flying in a 
steady business-like manner up-stream, and against the little wind there was. Ihey 
avoided the sides where the current is slower, and the lowest were at least eight feet 
above the surface, so the fishes had no chance. Such a sight as this is worth a 
jonrney from England to an entomologist. It can be no exaggeration to say that 
millions passed up-stream before I again arrived at the old bridge. This latter 
disconcerted the swarm, as it was right in the line of flight, and any number could 
there be caught in tho hand. Even the usually stolid citizens were struck by the 
phenomenon, so I suspect the swarm was greater than ordinarily. If there were a 
stopping-point, up-stream, the accumulations there must have been enormous. 
One interesting observation was made, viz : that Oligoneuria casts its subimagi- 
nal skin token on the wing, and does not rest to do it, as do other Ephemeridce. 
Mr. Eaton tells me he also has made a similar observation, and is of opinion that 
the pellicle on tho wings is not shed with that of the body, because he could never 
find this sheathing of the wings on the cast skins. O. rhenana occurs also at Zurich. 
— R. McLachlan, Lewisham : November Is/, 1880. 
Charagochilus Ggllenhali macropterous. — The common C. Ggllenhali, of short 
broad-oval form, has the elytra not longer than the abdomen, the cuneus and 
membrane being abruptly deflected and closely incumbent thereon. On the 26th 
September, 1879, in Darenth Wood, I swept up an example ( d ) which agrees with 
the characters of this species except that the elytra are not deflected but horizontal 
throughout and extend far beyond the end of the abdomen, the membrane 
especially being enlarged both in length and breadth. The antennae, particularly in 
the secc.id joint, and the posterior tibiae are longer than in the usual form. The 
length of the insect is 2 lines fully. I cannot find that this macropterous form of 
this species has ever been observed, and I think, therefore, that it is uncommon and 
worth noting.* 
Reuter, in his “ Genera Cimicidarum Europae,” puts Charagochilus, Fieb., 
Systratiotus, D. & S., and Poeciloscytus, Fieb., as sub-genera of one genus, to which 
I see no objection ; but he calls this genus Poeciloscytus of Fieber, which it evidently 
is not — but of Reuter only. If the names are to be regarded merely as generic 
appellations which may be used without reference to the application given to them 
by their author, then any one of them would do as a collective term ; in point of 
fact, Charagochilus has numerical precedence in Fieber’s “ Criterien zur generischen 
Thoilung der Phytocoriden ” (Wiener ent. Monatsch., ii, 1858) . — J. W. Douglas, 
Lewisham : November 15/A., 1880. 
Macropterous forms in the genera Blissus and Plinthisus. — In connection with 
the foregoing note on maximum development, I may draw ? attention to the interesting 
* 8ee the remarks of Dr. Reuter on polymorphism in Hcmiptera in the Ann. Soc. Lnt. France 
1S75, p. -’<£5. 
