STRAIGIIT-WINGED INSECTS. 139 



commence their ravages amonc; the various kinds of 

 grasses and herbs. On account of their injury to veg- 

 etation, in many countries, premiums are paid by the 

 public authorities for their collection and destruction. 

 For instance, in the year 1825, the city of Marseilles 

 in France, paid 6200 francs for collecting and destroy- 

 ing these noxious insects. 



But again, in many countries they form an article 

 of diet, and the inhabitants of some parts of Asia and 

 Africa use them as food, cooking them by frying them 

 in sweet oil, or by drying and then pulverising them, 

 after which they are made into bread. 



All the Grasshoppers, when taken, try to bite, and 

 in so doing they discharge a brown juice from their 

 mouth, which act probably gave rise to the idea that 

 they were ruminant animals, like our cloven hoofed 

 beasts, who tave more than one stomach. 



In some parts of France, Germany, Italy and Hun- 

 gary, these insects are used as a remedy for warts, and 

 it is said, successfully, the people applying them to the 

 parts affected, and allowing them to bite their warts. 

 It is not improbable that the remedy owes its successful 

 effect to the causticity of their saliva, which may act 

 like the lapis infernalis. 



Grasshoppers are very often subject to diseases aris- 

 ing from the presence of intestinal worms, particular- 

 ly the Hair-worm, Gordius, which not unfrequently 

 causes their death. 



