IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 2i)9 



hatched to march and glean after them. Having hved near a month in 

 this manner, they arrived at their full growth, and threw oti' their nyvipha- 

 state hy casting their outward skin. To prepare themselves for this change, 

 they clnng by their hinder feet to some bush, twig, or 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 Sim 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 con- 

 tinued not long in this state before they were entirely dispersed." The 

 species Dr. Shaw here speaks of is probably not the Locusta m'lgratoria. 



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

 or king\ has been adopted, but I think u'ithout sufficient reason, by several 

 travellers. Thus Benjamin BuUivant, in his " Observations on the 

 Natural History of New EnglandV' 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 pur- 

 sued by the fowls or the feet of the traveller, as I have often seriously re- 

 marked." And in like terms Jackson observes, that "they have a govern- 

 ment 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 splendour 

 of their wings, is a circumstance that has not yet been established by any 

 satisfiictory evidence ; indeed, very strong reasons may l)e urged against it. 

 The nations of bees and ants, it must be observed, are housed together in 

 one nest or hive, the whole [)opulation 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, there- 

 fore, that as the locusts have no common mother, like the bees, to lead 

 their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a different organisation 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 elec- 

 tors ? Are the myriads of millions all consulted, or is the elective fran- 

 chise 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. 



1 Bocliart, Hiemzoic. ii. 1. 4. c. 2. icO. * In PhUos. Trans, for 1698. 



' Jackson's Marocco. 51. •* Bcchart, Hkruzok. ubi supra. 



