412 



Marvels of Insect Life. 



The Migratory Locust. 



One of the species celebrated for its devastating incursions from the earliest days. It is a native 

 of South-eastern Europe and Turkestan, and does not e.xtend so widely in its migrations as some 

 of the other species. Natural size. 



the 



had the liead of the 

 horse, the eyes of the 

 elephant, the neck of 

 the bull, the horns of 

 the stag, the chest of 

 the lion, the belly of the 

 scorpion, the wings of 

 the eagle, the thighs of 

 the camel, the legs of 

 the ostrich, and the tail 

 of the serpent. The 

 locust hordes were to 

 them the avenging 

 armies of the great God. 

 They were believed to 

 lav ninety-nine eggs, 

 and to be restricted to 

 that number because, if 

 whole earth and all its 



they laid a hundred, their progeny would consume 

 contents. 



There are many records extant of locust visitations in the south and east 

 during the historical period, without falling back upon legend; and even in our 

 own time the story of our kinsfolk's struggle with these Insects in Cyprus and 

 South Africa is sufficient to satisfy us that the older records do not exaggerate the 

 ruin and devastation these creatures caused. The great Darwin, who was in no 

 sense prone to exaggeration, tells us how, in the year 1835, being just arrived at 

 Luxan, in South America, " we observed to the south a ragged cloud of a dark 

 reddish-brown colour. At first we thought that it was smoke from some great lire 

 on the plains ; but we soon found that it was a swarm of locusts. They were 

 flying northward ; and with the aid of a light breeze they overtook us at the rate 

 of ten or twelve miles an hour. The main body filled the air from a height of twenty 

 feet to that, as it appeared, of two or three thousand above the ground ; ' and 

 the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots, of many horses running to 

 battle ' : or rather, I should say, like a strong breeze passing through the rigging 

 of a ship. The sky, seen through the advance guard, appeared like a mezzotint 

 engraving, but the main body was impervious to sight ; they were not, however, 

 so thick together but that they could escape a stick waved backwards and forwards. 

 When they alighted, they were more numerous than the leaves in the field, and 

 the surface became reddish instead of being green : the swarm having once alighted, 

 the individuals flew from side to side in all directions." 



Mr. Carruthers, in the year 1889, made observations on a swarm that passed 

 over the Red Sea, and estimated its extent as equal to two thousand square miles. 

 By ascertaining that each locust weighed a sixteenth of an ounce, he arrived at an 

 estimate of thetotalweightof the swarm being 42,850 millions of tons ! A second swarm 

 of equal or greater extent was observed the following day. \Mien we took possession 



