Article beginning on page 180.
Psyche 6:180, 1891.

Full text (searchable PDF)
Durable link: http://psyche.entclub.org/6/6-180.html

The following unprocessed text is extracted from the PDF file, and is likely to be both incomplete and full of errors. Please consult the PDF file for the complete article.

[November ~å£91
BY SAMUEL HENSHAW.
BIOLOGIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA. - DIP-
TERA. Vol. I. By Charles Robert von Osten Sacken.
gen. sp.
Cecidornyidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. I. I I
Mycetophilidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 1-2. 3 6 Bibionidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 2-5. 3 22
Simulidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 5. I 3
Blepharoceridae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 5. I I Culicidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 5-6. 2 5
Tipulidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 6-20. 12 38
Rhyphidae, 1886, pt. 49, p. 20-22. I I
Stratiomyidae, 1886, pt 49-50, p
22-43. 27 g2
Tabanidae, 1886, pt. 50-51, p. 43-60. 8 74 Chiromyzidae, 1886, pt. 51, p. 60. r I
Leptidae, 1886, pt. 51, p. 60-62. 3 13
Xylophagidae, 1886, pt. 51, p. 62-63. I 2 Acanthomeridae, 1886, pt. 51, p.
63-68. 2 3
Midaidae, 1886, pt. 51-52, p. 68-73. 2 17 Nemestrinidae, 1886, pt. 52, p. 73-74. 2 3 Bombylidae, 1886-87, pt. 52-55,
p. 75-162. 24 107
Therevidae, 1887, pt. 55, p. 162-163. 2 y Cyrtidae, 1887, pt. 55, p. 163-167. 6 8
Asilidae, 1887, pt. 55-57, p. 167-213. 39 167 Dolichopodidae, 1887, pt. 57, p.
ZI3-214. 4 12
Empidae, 1887, pt. 57, p. 214-216. 2 10
The above enumeration of 147 genera and
593 species includes, in addition to those contained in the descriptive part of the work, all previously recorded from Mexico and
Central America.
Species of the following genera are fig- ured :-
TifuZidae, - ~~i~hra'~ma, I. *Tan~-
premna, I.
Strati0myidae.-Hermetia, I.
Tabanidae.-Chrysops, I. Tabanus, I.
Acanthomedae.-Acanthomera, 3.
Bomhylidae.-Anthrax, 2, 3. Aphoeban-
tus, 3. Argyramoeba, 2. Eclimus, 3. Exo- prosopa, I.
Hyperalonia, I, 2. *Isopenthes,
2. *Lepidanthrax, 2. Pantarbes, 3. *Stonyx, Cyrtidae.-Ocnaea, 3.
A.ciZidae.-*Cophura, 3. Diogmites, 3.
Laphria, 3. Lastaurus, 3. Mallophora, 3. Proctacanthus, 3.
The three plates contain 66 figures of 50 species; new genera are marked (*) ; the figure following the name of the genus de- notes the number of the plate.
CLOUDS OF INSECTS.
' On the night of Aug. 27th, Hornellsville, N. Y., was visited by a vast shoal of insects which came from the south, and, as long as observed, moved in a northerly direction. They made their appearance about sunset and on the following morning they had entirely disappeared. They were minute in size, pos- sessed four membranous, glossy wings, and the abdomen was separated from the thorax by a narrow constriction. They probably
belonged to the same order as the bees and wasps. The afternoon preceding the even- ing of their appearance was sultry and op- pressive, and the sky was unclouded. Just before dusk a vast mound-like cloud became visible south of the city. It had an apparent altitude of about two thousand feet and was of the cumulus type.
It shone with a rosy,
semi-metallic lustre due to reflections from the western sky. A few minutes later the insects began to come from the direction of the cloud. It would be impossible to esti- mate their numbers.
Probably there were at
least hundreds of millions. There were
places where they flew as thick as hail, and like hail in a common direction. When they had fully arrived the electric lights became the chief centres of their activity.
They
swarmed the stores and flew about the lights until exhausted, when they fell to the floors in such numbers that they were swept up by the merchants.
Hornellsville is situated in a valley extend- ing approximately north and south. Now




================================================================================

November 1891 .I
PSYCHE.
one remarkable fact about this occurrence was that these insects occupied a limited belt in the centre of the valley, and did not ex- tend to the elevated portions of the town on either side. There were no insects about the electric lights on the hillsides, and farther down in the valley the lights were fre-
quented only by Lepidoptera. Where the
small insects were most abundant the Lepi- doptera were wanting. Probably the small insects drove them away. Looking from the hillsides a cloudy phosphorescence was seen to extend over the city in an irregular sheet, with here and there patches and protuber- ances rising high above the common mass. Comparing the position of this cloud at
different times from seven until ten o'clock, it was evident that the centres of maximum density were moving northward, i. e., in the same direction that the insects moved in the early part of the evening. There was no
perceptible moisture in the air so that this cloud could not be attributed to mist. It must have been caused by the reflection of the city lights upon the glossy wings of these insects.
Prof. D. A. Saunders tells me that a very similar cloud passed over Alfred Centre, a village about twelve miles southwest of Horn- ellsville, on the evening of August 16. The insects in this case were flying ants with de- ciduous wings, so that, after the cloud had passed, their wings were found very abund- antly scattered over the ground.
This cloud
made its appearance about sunset and had passed over by dark. It came from a steep hill overlooking the town and swept across the town in a narrow belt, leaving the upper and lower parts unmolested. He has ob-
served other clouds during the year in Flor- ida, and says the inhabitants there are quite familar with them. A rather remarkable
cloud of this kind was particularly observed by him in the month of May at Sisco, Fla. The insects on this occasion were large, and had very glossy wings. The cloud began
about eight o'clock in the morning and lasted for half an hour. They seemed to rise
from a flat meadow densely overgrown with grass. They ascended to an altitude of about twenty feet, and continued the rest of their course in a horizontal direction. The cloud seems to have been confined chiefly to a twenty-acre lot and did not pass to adjacent parts.
It was a warm, bright day, and the
reflection of light upon their wings gave the cloud a striking resemblance to a snowstorm. Their wings were deciduous, and neighbor- ing pools were pretty much covered with
them. J. LAWTON WILLIAMS.
NOTES.-The Royal Society of New South
Wales offers a prize of the Society's medal and å£2 for the best essay containing the re- sults of original research on the injuries occasioned by insect pests upon introduced trees, the essay to be sent in before May I, 1893. The competition is in no way con-
fined to residents in Australia, but is open without restriction to all.
In Nature Notes for August Mr. R. T.
Lewis, on the authority of a correspondent in whose trustworthiness he has entire confi- dence, gives a curious account of the appre- ciation with which the song of the Cicada is heard by insects other than those of its own genus. The correspondent has frequently
observed in Natal that when the Cicada is singing at its loudest, in the hottest portion of the day, it is attended by a number of other insects with lovely, gauze-like, irides- cent wings, whose demeanour has left no
doubt on
his mind that the music is the at-
traction. The Cicada, when singing, usually stations itself upon the trunk of a tree with its head uppermost, and the insects in ques- tion, to the number sometimes of fifteen or sixteen, form themselves into a rough semi- circle at a short distance around its head. During a performance one of the insects was observed occasionally to approach the Cicada and to touch it upon its front leg or antennae, which proceeding was resented by a vigorous stroke of the foot by the
Cicada, without,




================================================================================