404 



KAVAGES OF IXSECTS. 



was darkened, and the earth covered with their numbers. 

 In some places they were seen lying dead, heaped upon 



Locust. 



each other to the depth of four feet ; in others they covered 

 the surface of the ground like a black cloth : the trees bent 

 with their weight, and the damage the country sustained 

 exceeded computation.* They have frequently come also 

 from Africa into Italy and Spain. In the year 591 an 

 infinite array of locusts, of a size unusually large, ravaged 

 a considerable part of Italy, and being at last cast into the 

 sea (as seems for the most j^art to be their fate), a pesti- 

 lence, it is alleged, arose from their stench, which carried 

 off nearly a million of men and beasts. In the Venetian 

 territory, likewise, in 1478, more than 30,000 persons are 

 said to have perished in a famine chiefly occasioned by the 

 depredations of locusts. f 



Maggots. 

 Adhering to the distinction of terming those larvse which 

 are destitute of feet, maggots, we shall notice here a very 

 destructive one, which is sometimes popularly called the 

 grub, and sometimes confounded with the wire-worm. + 

 We allude to the larvae of one or two common species of 

 crane-flies ( Tipulidce), well known by the provincial names 

 of Father long-legs, Jenny-spinners, and tailors. These 



* Bingley, Anim. Biog., vol. iii. p. 280. 



t Mouflfet, Theatr. Insect, p. 123. 



X See Stickney's Observ. on the Gi-ub, 8vo. Hull, 1800. 



