ORTHOPTERA. 145 



hinder margin, spreading apart, when the wings arc opened, 

 like the sti(;ks of a fan, and are connected and strengthened by- 

 little crossing veins, which form a kind of network. The same 

 structure exists in the wings of grasshoppers, but in them the 

 longitudinal ribs are not so strong, and the network is much 

 more delicate. Hence the flight of grasshoppers is short and 

 unsteady, while that of locusts is longer and better sustained. 

 Many locusts, when they fly, make a loud whizzing noise, the 

 source of which does not seem to be understood. Those of 

 our native locusts, whose flight is the most noisy, are the coral- 

 winged, the yellow-winged, and the broad-winged species. But 

 as these are comparatively small insects, and never assemble in 

 such great swarms as the much larger migrating locusts of 

 Asia and Africa, the noise of theu- flight bears no comparison 

 to that of the latter. When a large number of these take flight 

 together, it is said that the noise is like the rushing of a whirl- 

 wind ; and hence we read, of the symbolical locusts of the 

 Apocalypse, that the sound of their wings was as the sound 

 of chariots of horses running to battle;* and, of others, that 

 their coming is like the noise of chariots on the tops of moun- 

 tains, or the crackling of stubble when overrun, and consumed 

 by a flame of fire.f 



The East seems to have suffered severely at various times 

 from the irruptions of immense swarms of locusts, darkening 

 the sky during their passage, stripping the surface of the earth, 

 where they alight, of all vestiges of vegetation, and thus re- 

 ducing, in an inconceivably short time, the most fertile regions 

 to barren wastes. The ground over which they have passed 

 presents the appearance of having been scorched by fire, and 

 hence the name of locust, which is derived from the Latin,^ 

 and means a biunt place, is highly expressive of the desolation 

 occasioned by their ravages. Famine and pestilence have 

 sometimes followed their appearance, as we find recorded by 

 various writers. Li the Scriptures § frequent mention is made 



* Revelations IX. 11. f Joel II. 5. J Locus and ^^stus. 



§ For an explanation of the various passages in which allusion is made to 

 locusts, and for much interesting matter, relating to the history of these insects 



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