Chap. 36.] ANTS. 3/ 



Those from Africa are the ones which chiefly devastate 

 Italy ; and more than once the Roman people have been obliged 

 to have recourse to the Sibylline Books, to learn what remedies 

 to employ under their existing apprehensions of impending 

 famine. In the territory of Cyrenaica 32 there is a law, which 

 even compels the people to make war, three times a year, 

 against the locusts, first, by crushing their eggs, next by kill- 

 ing the young, and last of all by killing those of full growth ; 

 and he who fails to do so, incurs the penalty of being treated 

 as a deserter. In the island of Lemnos also, there is a certain 

 measure fixed by law, which each individual is bound to fill 

 with locusts which he has killed, and then bring it to the 

 magistrates. It is for this reason, too, that they pay such respect 

 to the jack-daw, which flies to meet the locusts, and kills them 

 in great numbers. In Syria, also, the people are placed under 

 martial law, and compelled to kill them : in so many countries 

 does this dreadful pest prevail. The Parthians look upon 

 them as a choice food, 33 and the grasshopper as well. The voice 

 of the locust appears to proceed from the back part of the head. 

 It is generally believed that in this place, where the shoulders 

 join on to the body, they have, as it were, a kind of teeth, and 

 that it is by grinding these against each other that they pro- 

 duce the harsh noise which they make. It is more especially 

 about the two equinoxes that they are to be heard, in the 

 same way that we hear the chirrup of the grasshopper about 

 the summer solstice. The coupling of locusts is similar to 

 that of all other insects that couple, the female supporting 

 the male, and turning back the extremity of the tail towards 

 him ; it is only after a considerable time that they separate. 

 In all these kinds of insects the male is of smaller size than 

 the female. 



chap. 36. (30.) — ants. - 



The greater part of the insects produce a maggot. Ants also 

 produce one in spring, which is similar to an egg, u and they 



33 Julius Obsequens speaks of a pestilence there, created hy the dead 

 bodies of the locusts, which caused the death of 8000 persons. 



33 See also B. vi. c. 35. 



34 "What are commonly called ants' eggs, are in reality their larvae and 

 nymphse. Enveloped in a sort of tunic, these last, Cuvier says, are like 

 grains of corn, and from this probably has arisen the story that they lay 



