186 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTSi 



element of fire Avas tried in vain. When lighted to ar- 

 rest their route, they rushed into the blaze in such my- 

 riads of millions as to extinguish it. Those that thus 

 patriotically devoted themselves to certain death for the 

 common good, were but as the pioneers or advanced 

 guard of a countless army, which by their self-sacrifice 

 was enabled to pass unimpeded and unhurt. The en- 

 tire crops of standing canes Avere burnt down, and the 

 earth dug up in every part of the plantations. But vain 

 was every attempt of man to effect their destruction, 

 till in 1780 it pleased Providence at length to annihi- 

 late them by the torrents of rain which accompanied a 

 hurricane niost fatal to the other West India Islands. 

 This dreadful pest was thought to have been imported \ 

 Besides these enemies, the sugar-cane has also its Aphis, 

 which sometimes destroys the whole crop ^ ; and accord- 

 ing to Humboldt and Bonpland the larva oi Elater tioc': 

 tilucus feeds in it*^. 



Two other vegetable productions of the New World, 

 cotton and tobacco, which are also valuable articles of 

 commerce, receive great injury from the depredations 

 of insects. M'Kinnen, in his Tour through the West 

 Indies, states that in 1788 and 1794 two-thirds of the 

 crop of cotton in Crooked Island, one of the Bahamas, 

 was destroyed by the chenille (probably a lepidopterous 

 larva) ; and the red bug, an insect equally noxious, 

 stained it so much in some places as to render it of lit- 

 tle or no value. Browne relates that in Jamaica a bug- 

 destroys whole fields of this plant, and the caterpillar of 



= Castle in Pfiilos. Trans, xxx. 346. 



'' Browne's Civil and Nat. Hist, nf Jamaica, 430, 



* Essaimr la G^ographie da Flantes, lliQ. 



