MEANS OF DESTROYING THE GRASSHOPPER. 215 



of gahian. It appears to be our stork. la the Neapolitan dominions, 

 the landholders on the appearance of the locust place their chief reli- 

 ance on the birds. In Asia Minor and other southern regions, the 

 locusts make their appearance so frequently and in such vast quanti- 

 ties, that the birds alone cannot meet the requirements of the inhabi- 

 tants. In North America, the young turkeys are trained to seek out 

 and feed upon the larvte of grasshoppers and locusts, especially when 

 they begin to hatch from the eggs, whereby great numbers of them 

 are destroyed. 



Domestic fowls, as geese, ducks, turkeys, and chickens, are exceed- 

 ingly fond of such food. About Temeshvar, in Hungary, the locusts 

 were once got rid of by driving into tlie place where they had alighted 

 15,000 head of swine, which in a single night and morning devoured 

 them all. 



Of insects, the one called the tormenting ichneumon, (Pirnpla insli- 

 gatoi\) of the order Hymenoptera, deposits its eggs in the egg-cases or 

 tubes of the locust ; and when the larva comes forth, it sucks out the 

 whole fifty eggs there congregated, so that the case remains empty. 

 This insect, which is also beneficial to forests, by destroying the cater- 

 pillars that injure the trees, has a body of a black color with reddish 

 yellow legs. It has four wings, all of which are transparent and 

 veined. ' Antennre long. The hinder part of the body is broad, but 

 grows narrower towards the thorax as in the wasp. The female has 

 at the end of her body a long tube and a fork. With the former she 

 lays her eggs, and on the latter she leans when it is necessary to pierce 

 a place in which to lay an egg. The larva of this insect h white, par- 

 tially transparent, without legs, and resembles in appearance a small 

 worm ; when full grown it is about four lines long, and in its narrow 

 head are tlie scarcely observable parts of its mouth. 



Another insect of the tribe of Braconidte, called the short-winged 

 ichneumon, {Froctotrupes brevipennis, Latr.,) has often been found by 

 me near the Italian locusts, on which were traces of bites upon the 

 sides of the thorax and abdomen. Hence I suppose that this insect 

 also stands in some sort of connexion with the locusts, aiding, it may 

 be, in the diminution of the latter. But I have not succeeded in de- 

 tecting it operating in this manner. 



In America a species of mud-wasp attacks the young brood of the 

 locust, and carries them to its nest to nourish its larvfe there. At 

 the same time this strange phenomenon is observed, that the wasp 

 previously seizes the insect which it requires, stings it, and tlius pro- 

 duces a paralyzed condition ; so that, without dying, it remains in a 

 motionless state, and as it does not putrefy in the wasp's nest, it can 

 serve for food during the whole growth of the larva. 



Taking into consideration the means provided by nature for restrain- 

 ing the multiplication of the locust within the requisite limits, we may 

 assume that, of the eggs laid by it about one-tenth succeed in passing 

 through all the transformations of their existence, and with this tenth 

 part alone it comes in conflict with the husbandman. But even this 

 is sufficiently great to furnish matter for reflection to every one who 

 knows by experience wliat an attack of the locust is. The most 



