Zoology.'] NATURAL HISTORY OF VICTORIA. [Insects. 



Patanga, refers to the jumping and advancing of the swarms ; the 

 Chinese names have all the same meaning ; the Greek, aicpig, refers 

 to the belief that they came from the tops of the mountains ; and 

 the Arabic, Djarddoim, is from their gnawing or plucking away 

 every green thing. 



The astonishing multitudes of individuals which appear at one 

 time, and apparently march or fly over the land nearly in one 

 direction, constitute in all countries a constant character of these 

 scourges or plagues, and is not clearly explicable at present. The 

 passage is only partially effected by the wings, which are only 

 capable of holding up the body for a short distance ; the prevailing 

 winds are really the most powerful agents for carrying forward 

 these clouds of Locusts, described by all observers ; and it is 

 entirely to the power of currents high in the air that the passage 

 of clouds of Locusts over hundreds of miles of sea is sometimes 

 observed when they fall on ships at sea hundreds of miles from 

 land. 



The eggs are generally deposited in autumn in the earth, in 

 parcels of fifty or sixty, slightly glued together. In spring the 

 young appear without tegmina or wings; and, jumping with the 

 hind legs, or walking slowly with the four anterior ones, increase 

 in size, and devour most kinds of vegetation, with a gradual de- 

 velopment of wings at each moult or change of skin, until the 

 autumn, when the flights or migrations take place on the perfection 

 of the wings of a considerable proportion of the individuals. 

 These are always accompanied by a multitude of imperfect 

 younger individuals with short, undeveloped wings, travelling as 

 pedestrians — the " Fiissgangers," as the Germans, and the Dutch 

 Boers in Africa, call them. 



Prepared in various ways, the Locusts make good food, especially 

 if mixed with honey, which makes them more easy of digestion ; 

 some nations boiling them with butter ; others roasting the bodies, 

 after taking off the legs and wings, and, with the addition of salt, 

 either eating them fresh or potting them up preserved for future 

 use. Sparmann mentions how fat the delighted Hottentots grow 

 when the Locusts arrive in due season. Many of the lower 

 animals, birds, and mammals, even lions, feed largely on them. 



[44] 



