194 INDIRECT INJURIES CAUSED BY INSECTS. 



stroyers did not meddle with the corn, or famine would 

 have followed in their train. Reaumur has proved that 

 a single pair of these insects might in one season pro- 

 duce 80,000 ; so that, were the friendly Ichneumons 

 removed, to which the mercy of Heaven has given it in 

 charge to keep their numbers within due limits, we 

 should no longer enjoy the comfort of vegetables with 

 our animal food, and probably soon become the prey of 

 scorbutic diseases^. — I must not overlook that singu- 

 lar animal the mole-cricket, (Acheta Gri/llotalpa, F.,) 

 which is a terrible devastator of the produce of the 

 kitchen-garden. It burrows under ground, and de- 

 vouring the roots of plants thus occasions them to wi- 

 ther, and even gets into hot-beds. It does so much mis- 

 chief in Germany, that the author of an old book of gar- 

 dening, after giving a figure of it, exclaims, " Happy 

 are the places where this pest is unknown ! " 



The Jlowers and shrubs^ that form the ornament of 

 our parterres and pleasure-grounds, seem less exposed 

 to insect depredation than the produce of the kitclien- 

 garden; yet still there are not a few that suffer from 

 it. The foliage of one of our greatest favourites, the 

 rose, often loses all its loveliness and lustre from the 

 excrements of the Aphides that prey upon it. The leaf- 

 cutter bee also (Apis ce?ituncularis, L.) by cutting 

 pieces out to form for its young its cells of curious con- 

 struction, disfigures it considerably; and the froth Ci- 

 cada (C. spumaria, L.) aided by the saw-fly of the rose, 

 (Tenthredo Rosce, L.,) contributes to check the luxuri- 

 ance of its growth, and to diminish the splendour of its 

 beauty. — Reaumur has given the history of a fly (En's- 



* Reaum. ii, 331. 



