llvi^EftPECt SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 17 



ihey continued not lono- in this state before tliey were 

 entirely dispersed." The species Dr. Sha\V here speaks 

 of is probably not the Grj/llus migratorius, L. 



The old Arabian fable, that they are directed in 

 their flights by a leader or king'', has been adopted, 

 but I think without sufficient reason, by several travel- 

 lers. Thus Benjamin Bullivant, in his o])servations 

 on the Natural History of New England'', says that 

 " the locusts have a kind of reginsental discipline, and 

 as it were some commanders, which show greater and 

 more splendid wings than the common ones, and arise 

 first when pursued by the fowls or the feet of the tra- 

 veller, as I have often seriously remarked." And in 

 like terms Jackson observes, that " they have a govern- 

 ment amongst themselves similar to that of the bees 

 and ants ; and when the {Sultan Jerraad) king of the 

 locusts rises, the whole body follow him, not one soli- 

 tary straggler being left behind ^" But that locusts 

 have leaders, like the bees or ants, distinguished from 

 the rest by the size and splendour of their wings, is a 

 circumstance that has not yet been established by any 

 satisfactory evidence ; indeed, very strong reasons may 

 be urged against it. The nations of bees and ants, it 

 must be observed, are housed together in one nest or 

 hive, the whole population of which is originally de- 

 rived from one common mother, and the leaders of the 

 swarms in each are the females. But the armies of 

 locusts, tliough they herd together, travel together, 

 and feed together, consist of an infinity of separate fa- 

 milies, ail derived from different mothers, who have 



* Bochart, llierozok. ii. I. 4. c. 2. 460. '' ia Fhi'os. T,ans. for 1698. 

 ^ Jackson's Marocco, 51. 

 VOL. II. C 



