132 
LOCUST. 
Worm; and we Transylvanians found by experi-. 
ence that the swarm which entered our fields by 
the Red Tower, did not seem to intend remaining 
there, but were thrown to the ground by the force 
of the wind, and there laid their eggs; a vast 
number of which being turned up and crushed by 
the plough in the beginning of the ensuing spring, 
yielded a yellowish juice. In the spring of 1748 
certain little blackish worms were seen lying in 
the fields and among the bushes, sticking together, 
and collected in clusters, not unlike the hillocks 
of moles or ants. As nobody knew what they 
were, so there was little or no notice taken of 
them, and in May they were covered by the shoot- 
ing of the corn sown in winter; but the sub- 
sequent June discovered what those worms were:; 
for then, as the corn sown in spring was pretty 
high, these creatures began to spread over the 
fields, and become destructive to the vegetables 
by their numbers. J'hen at length the country 
people, who had slighted the warning given them, 
began to repent of their negligence; for as these 
insects were now dispersed all over the fields, they 
could not be extirpated without injuring the corn. 
At that time they differed little or nothing from 
our common Grasshoppers, having their head, sides, 
and back of a dark colour, with a yellow belly, 
and the rest of a reddish hue. About the middle 
of June, according as they were hatched sooner 
or later, they were generally a finger’s length, or 
somewhat longer, but their shape and colour still 
continued. Towards the end of June they cast 
off their outward covering, and then it plainly ap- 
