Chop. 32.] THE GRASSHOPPER. 31 



is the belief also that there is nothing more baneful to the 

 scorpion and the stellio, 96 than to dip them in oil. This last 

 animal is also dangerous to all other creatures, except those 

 which, like itself, are destitute of blood : in figure it strongly 

 resembles the common lizard. For the most part, also, 

 the scorpion does no injury to any animal which is bloodless. 

 Some writers, too, are of opinion that the scorpion devours its 

 offspring, and that the one among the young which is the most 

 adroit avails itself of its sole mode of escape, by placing itself 

 on the back of the mother, and thus finding a place where it 

 is in safety from the tail and the sting. The one that thus 

 escapes, they say, becomes the avenger of the rest, and at last, 

 taking advantage of its elevated position, puts its parents to 

 death. The scorpion produces eleven at a birth. 



CHAP, 31. (26.) — THE STELLIO. 



The stellio 97 has in some measure the same nature as the 

 chameleon, as it lives upon nothing but dew, and such spiders 98 

 as it may happen to find. 



CHAP. 32. THE GRASSHOPPER : THAT IT HAS NEITHER MOUTH 



NOR OUTLET FOR FOOD. 



The cicada 99 also lives in a similar manner, and is divided 

 into two kinds. The smaller kind are born the first arid die 

 the last, and are without a voice. The others are of the flying 

 kind, and have a note ; there are two sorts, those known as 

 achetcE, and the smaller ones called tettigonia : these last have 

 the loudest voice. In both of these last-mentioned kinds, it is 

 the male that sings, while the female is silent. There are na- 

 tions in the east that feed upon these insects, the Parthians 



96 The starred or spotted lizard. 



97 The stellio of the Romans is the "ascalabos" or " ascalabotes " of 

 the Greeks, the lizard into which Ascalahus was changed by Ceres : see 

 Ovid, Met. B. v. 1. 450, et seq. Pliny also mentions this in B. xxix. c. 4, 

 though he speaks of some difference in their appearance. It is a species 

 of gecko, the tarentola of Italy, the tarente of Provence, and the geckotta, 

 probably, of Lacepede. The gecko, Cuvier says, is not venomous ; but it 

 causes small blisters to rise on the skin when it walks over it, the result, 

 probably, of the extreme sharpness of its nails. 



98 See c. 28 of this Book, and B. viii. c. 95 ; B. xxx. c. 27. 



99 A general name for the grasshopper. Cuvier remarks, that Tliny is 

 less clear on this subject than Aristotle_, the author from whom he has 

 borrowed. 



