INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 193 



prived of this privilege, an unascertained species, called 

 there the cucumber-fly, doing them great injury''. — 

 And, to name no more, mushrooms, which are fre- 

 quently cultivated and much in request, often swarm 

 Avith the maggots of various Diptera and Coleoptera. 



The insects just enumerated are partial in their at- 

 tacks, confining themselves to one or two kinds of our 

 pulse or other vegetables. But there are others that 

 devour more indiscriminately the produce of our gar- 

 dens : and of these in certain seasons and countries we 

 have no greater and more universal enemy than the 

 caterpillar of a moth called by entomologists Noctua 

 Gamma, from its having a character inscribed in gold 

 onit§ primary wings, which resembles that Greek letter. 

 This creature aflbrds a pregnant instance of the power 

 of Providence to let loose an animal to the work of de- 

 struction and punishment. Though common with us, 

 it is seldom the cause of more than trivial injury; but 

 in the year 1735 it was so incredibly multiplied in 

 France as to infest the whole country. On the great 

 roads, wherever you cast your eyes, you might see vast 

 numbers traversing them in all directions to pass from 

 field to field ; but their ravages were particularly felt 

 in the kitchen-gardens, where they devoured every 

 thing, whether pulse or pot-herbs, so that nothing was 

 left besides the stalks and veins of the leaves. The 

 credulous multitude thought they were poisonous, re- 

 port affirming that in some instances the eating of them 

 had been followed by fatal effects. In consequence of 

 this alarming idea, herbs were banished for several 

 weeks from .the soups of Paris. Fortunately these de- 



* Barton in Philos. Mcigaz. ix. 62. 

 VOL. I. O 



