Note 4 — I. ACCOUNT OF THE ERUPTION.

(P. 97). The abundance of coleoptera and of various other forms of insect life about lava beds, both recent and old, is a very singular fact, and one worthy of the careful observation of entomologists. In the autumn of 1864, at mid-day, when sitting sketching upon the lava about the middle of the Val del Bove (Etna), I found it almost impossible to work, or even to remain for an instant still, in consequence of the continual cloud of insects, large and small, that struck against me in flight, endangered the eyes, and swarmed upon my clothes. It is quite possible that this local superabundance of insect life may arise merely from the general dryness and warmth of such places, and the plentiful nidus that the innumerable cavities in lava afford for the eggs and earlier stages of insect life; still, this apparition of one form of life may also be connected with other circumstances not unimportant to discover.