DIRECT BENEFITS DERIVED FROM INSECTS. 305 



The worm (larva), he says, lives in the earth where it 

 takes its growth ; that it then becomes a Tettigometra 

 {pupa), when he observes they are most delicious, just 

 before they burst from their covering. From this state 

 they change to the Tettix or Cicada, when the males at 

 first have the best flavour ; but after impregnation the 

 females are preferred on account of their white eggs'*. 

 Athenaeus also and Aristophanes mention tlieir being 

 eaten ; and iElian is extremely angry with the men of 

 his age that an animal sacred to the Muses should be 

 strung, sold, and greedily devoured''. Pliny tells us 

 that the nations of the East, even the Parthians, whose 

 wealth was abundant, use them as food''. The imago 

 of the Tettigonia septendecim is still eaten by the In- 

 dians in America, who pluck off the wings and boil 

 them '^. This ancient Greek taste for Tettigoniae seems 

 now gone out of fashion, at least travellers do not no- 

 tice it : but perhaps if it were revived in those countries 

 where the insects are to be found, for they inhabit only 

 warm climates, it would be ascertained that so polished 

 a people did not relish them without reason. 



No insects are more numerous in this island than the 

 caterpilhirs of Lepidoptcra: if these could be used in 

 aid of the stock of food in times of scarcity, it might sub- 

 serve the double purpose of ridding us of a nuisance, 

 and reliaving the public pressure. Reaumur suggests 

 this mode of diminishing the numbers of destructive 

 caterpillars, speaking of that of iVbc/Ma G^awwz«, which 

 did such infinite mischief in France in the year 1735 *". 



'^ Arist. Hist. An. \. v. c. 30. * Vide Bocliart, Hieroz. ii. I. 4. cl. 491 . 



^ Hist. Nat. 1. xi. c. 26. " P. Collinson in riiil. Trans. 1763. n. x. 

 •■ Reaiim. li. 341. 



VOL. I. X 



