334 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



corner of a stone ; and immediately, by using an undulating motion, their 

 heads would first break out, and then the rest of their bodies. The whole 

 transformation was performed in seven or eight minutes, after which they 

 lay for a small time in a torpid and seemingly in a languishing condition ; 

 but as soon as the sun and the air had hardened their wings, by drying up 

 the moisture that remained upon them after casting their sloughs, they 

 reassumed their former voracity, with an addition of strength and agility. 

 Yet they continued not long in this state before they were entirely 

 dispersed." The species Dr. Shaw here speaks of is probably not the 

 Locusta migratoria. 



The old Arabian fable, that they are directed in their flights by a leader 

 or king^, has been adopted, but I think without sufficient reason, by 

 several travelers. Thus Benjamin BuUivant, in his " Observations on 

 the Natural History of New England^," says that " the locusts have a 

 kind of regimental discipline, and as it were some commanders, which 

 show greater and more splendid wings than the common ones, and arise 

 first when pursued by the fowls or the feet of the traveler, as I have 

 often seriously remarked." And in like terms Jackson observes, that 

 " they have a government amongst themselves similar to that of the bees 

 and ants ; and when the (^Sultan Jerraad) king of the locusts rises, the 

 whole body follow him, not one solitary straggler being left behind."-^ 

 But that locusts have leaders, like the bees or ants, distinguished from the 

 rest by the size and splendor of their wings, is a circumstance that has 

 not yet been established by any satisfactory evidence ; indeed, very strong 

 reasons may be urged against it. The nations of bees and ants, it must 

 be observed, are housed together in one nest or hive, the whole population 

 of which is originally derived from one common mother, and the leaders 

 of the swarms in each are the females. But the armies of locusts, though 

 they herd together, travel together, and feed together, consist of an infinity 

 of separate families, all derived from different mothers, who have laid 

 their eggs in separate cells or houses in the earth ; so that there is little or 

 no analogy between the societies of locusts and those of bees and ants ; 

 and this pretended sultan is something quite different from the queen bee 

 or the female ants. It follows, therefore, that as the locusts have no 

 common mother, like the bees, to lead their swarms, there is no one that 

 nature, by a different organization and ampler dimensions, and a more 

 august form, has destined to this high office. The only question remaining 

 is, whether one be elected from the rest by common consent as their 

 leader, or whether their instinct impels them to follow the first that takes 

 flight or alights. This last is the learned Bochart's opinion, and seems 

 much the most reasonable.^ The absurdity of the other supposition, that 

 an election is made, will appear from such queries as these, at which you 

 may smile. Who are the electors ? Are the myriads of millions all 

 consulted, or is the elective franchise confined to a few? ■ Who holds the 

 courts and takes the votes? Who casts them up and declares the result? 

 When is the election made ? The larvae appear to be as much under 

 government as the perfect insect. Is the monarch then chosen by his 

 peers when they first leave the egg and emerge from their subterranean 



1 Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. 4. c. 2. 460. « In Pfiilos. Trans, for 1698. 



3 Jackson's Marocco, 51. ■* Bochart, Hierozoic. ubi supra. 



